SCENIC VIEW AT MOUNT MAGAZINE STATE PARK NICHOLASGERALDINEPHOTOS/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

ARKANSAS STATE PARKS

No matter where you go in the Natural State, you are never far from an Arkansas State Park. You can collect sparkling gemstones at the Crater of Diamonds and sail sparkling waters at Lake Ouachita. You can watch eagles fly from a barge on the water and watch hang gliders soar from the deck of a lodge. You can sleep in a historic schoolhouse, rent an RV or a yurt, or pitch your tent under the stars beside one of our pristine rivers. Your guides are botanists and biologists, conservationists and preservationists, historians and artisans, all interpreters at Arkansas State Parks. Funded by a perpetual state tax, Arkansas’s state park system is one of the few in the country that provides degreed interpreters to enhance visitor experience every day the parks are open.

The birth of the park system is a good example of the state taking lemons and making lemonade. In 1921, the Fort Smith Lumber Co. enlisted the support of Dr. T. W. Hardison in brokering a deal with the federal government to convert company-owned land in the Arkansas River Valley into a national park. In a two-hour meeting with Stephen Mather, director of the national park system, Hardison described the area and its recreational value to the state, and showed photographs of the beauty of Seven Hollows, Petit Jean Mountain, and Cedar Falls. At the meeting’s end, Mather determined the area too small for a national park and not unique enough on a national level to carry the national designation. He recommended that Hardison partner with Arkansas to create a state park. Hardison’s mission was accomplished in 1923, when legislation was passed setting aside the land for Arkansas’s first state park on Petit Jean Mountain.

A decade later, the nation struggled with the burden of the unemployment of millions, and less than three weeks after President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, he signed legislation creating the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Arkansas’s state park system, still in its infancy, was the primary beneficiary of efforts in the state as the work program created roads, trails, lodges and cabins, campgrounds, amphitheaters, bathhouses, picnic pavilions, and beaches at six locations in four different regions of the state. Petit Jean, Mount Nebo, Crowley’s Ridge, Devil’s Den, and Lake Catherine, charter parks in the newly created system, now preserve and protect Arkansas’s CCC history, as well as their own.

Areas of Emphasis

While each park is individual and uniquely portrays its natural resources or place in history, they can be classified as one (or more!) of the following types: adventure, mountain, history, or lakes and rivers.

If you are an adrenaline junkie, you will find no shortage of heart-thumping, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing alternatives at Arkansas’s mountain parks. Hang gliders find near-perfect conditions flying off peaks at two parks in the River Valley. Mount Magazine State Park, home of the state’s tallest mountain (2,753 feet), has a launch pad located between two cabins, so you can watch pilots fly off the mountain from your hot tub. Nearby Mount Nebo State Park hosts two events annually, in April and August.

THE DAVIES LEGACY

In 1937, the State Parks Commission received its first budget and authorization to hire a superintendent. The commission selected Samuel G. Davies, the former construction superintendent for the CCC stationed at Petit Jean State Park. Davies and his son Ladd worked side by side for much of the Petit Jean project, including the design and construction of the Cedar Creek Bridge (rededicated as the Davies Bridge in 1988). In 1976, when he was named Arkansas State Parks director, Richard W. Davies became the third generation of the family to serve the state as guardian of its natural resources. Richard grew up on Petit Jean Mountain; the first state park was a second home to him. The men he most admired had devoted decades to the care and conservation of what they believed to be Arkansas’s most valuable treasures, the state parks. The stories told around his family table were park stories, and he shared those stories with an ever-growing staff; their shared vision would motivate the people of Arkansas, one of the poorest states in the country, to take unprecedented steps that would catapult the system from relative obscurity to national prominence.

By the 1980s, Arkansas’s state parks were the top tourist draw in the state, with 42 locations and a seat on the governor’s Cabinet. Through the 1980s and 1990s, better training and regulated uniforms for staff were added, marketing efforts improved, and visitation was up, disguising the financial straits that stalked the parks. Despite their apparent success, many of the aging facilities were beginning to decline from increased use as well as the revenue demands caused by legislative initiatives that added new properties without funding to support their operation. The parks found themselves to be a low priority for legislative funding, and by 1993 a coalition of state conservation agencies and land managers was formed to ask the people of Arkansas for help. They proposed the adoption of a conservation tax to provide perpetual funding for its members, which included Arkansas’s Game and Fish Commission, Department of Heritage, and Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. The proposal called for a 1/8-cent tax to be levied on lodging and attractions, with the revenue generated funneled back into operations, maintenance and repair, and capital improvements. The agencies also assured voters they would not use the money to acquire new lands that would further deplete their resources.

The matter was finally put before Arkansas voters in 1996 following an aggressive campaign that included 16 stops along the Arkansas River by then-governor Mike Huckabee and his wife to focus the state’s attention on the issue. In November of 1996, Act 75 was passed, providing substantial and perpetual funding for the preservation and protection of the state’s natural and cultural heritage. During the first three years that the state collected the Conservation Tax, it generated nearly $65.4 million in additional funds for state parks. Today’s state parks are the envy of the nation, immaculately maintained and staffed by degreed professionals with a common goal of helping visitors develop an emotional and intellectual connection to the park they represent.

If your idea of adventure is wet and wild, Arkansas’s premier white-water experience is at Cossatot State Park, and when water levels are high, these Class IV and V rapids attract the state’s expert paddlers. Or, if you want a little more glide with your ride, flat-water kayaking through bald cypress trees at Pinnacle Mountain State Park may be more your speed. Davidsonville Historic State Park offers two 8-mile floats that also let you really get a feel for the life and times of the early 1800s. Interpreters at Cane Creek State Park have created a kayak trail that is unforgettable; you will paddle from the starkly beautiful remains of the bald cypress forest in the Delta into acres of delicate lily pads of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. If you are into geocaching, you can grab a find along the way.

The system’s newest park is the Mississippi River State Park, developed through a special use permit from the US Forest Service. Accessed via two national scenic byways (the Great River Road and Crowley’s Ridge Parkway), MRSP is nestled in the lush St. Francis National Forest in eastern Arkansas. The park visitor center is staffed by US Forest Service personnel and Arkansas State Parks rangers and interpreters. Its exhibits interpret the Mississippi River, Crowley’s Ridge, and the Delta. The facility also includes a large multipurpose area for group events.

Sailing, skiing, fishing, and recreational boating are popular pastimes on Arkansas’s crystal clear lakes. But the pure waters are equally appreciated from beneath their surface by snorkelers at three state parks. DeGray Lake Resort conducts almost daily guided tours of the lake during summer months. Underwater Discovery is a weekly snorkeling experience showcasing the fish that inhabit Lake Ouachita State Park. Snorkeling is also allowed in the pools of the Cossatot River when water levels are low.

Nine state parks feature well-developed and maintained trails for your cycling pleasure. If you are considered sport or expert class, you will appreciate access to the 31-mile Bear Creek Cycle Trail, formerly reserved for motorcycles and ATVs. Obviously challenging for foot-pedalers, this trail will give you firsthand experience with the rugged terrain of the Ouachita Mountains. You can ride historic trails at Village Creek, Hobbs, and Mount Nebo State Parks. Devil’s Den State Park hosts two major events that pack the park each year: the Ozark Mountain Bike Festival, which is usually the first weekend in April, and the Northwest Mountain Bike Championships, usually held two weeks after Labor Day.

Mount Magazine, with its rugged bluffs, deep canyons, and natural diversity, is the highest relief between the Rockies and the Appalachians and the state parks system’s most dramatic location for technical climbing. Traditional and sport climbing as well as rappelling are allowed in a designated area on the mountain’s south bluff overlooking the Petit Jean River Valley. This 1,500-foot wide stretch of sandstone boasts over 100 routes up to 80 feet high, ranging from 5.5 to 5.12c in difficulty, with plenty in the 5.10 and under range. For scenic in the city, try Pinnacle Mountain, just minutes west of Little Rock. The park’s dominant natural feature and namesake, the 1,011-foot peak has several faces suitable for technical climbing. A number of routes ranging in difficulty up to 5.8 have been mapped on the south and east faces by local climbing clubs.

The Ozark Plateau is known not only for the scenic vistas above the ground, but also the panoramic perspective found beneath it. Caves in the Ozarks are like cars in Los Angeles—everyone has at least one. At Devil’s Den State Park, you can explore the unique sandstone crevice area on your own or as part of a strenuous guided tour offered weekly by park interpreters. You will step back in time in Rock House Cave on Petit Jean Mountain, where pictographs are symbolic reminders of the Native Americans who first climbed this mountain 10,000 years ago.

History is an important chapter in most of the stories creatively told in the parks, whether it is Native American, Civil War, or natural history. Some of the parks are crafty about it, like slipping vegetables to toddlers. Thirteen museums use dioramas, interactive displays, and interpretive programming to bring their locations to life. At Mammoth Spring State Park, you can stroll through the oldest railroad station in Arkansas, the circa 1886 Frisco Depot. This restored, turn-of-the century Victorian depot is populated with custom-sculpted, lifelike figures that portray the train crew, depot crew, and train passengers of the early 1900s.

In the south Arkansas town of Smackover (yes, Smackover), the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources takes you, by elevator, on a journey inside the earth where you can see the formation of the oil strata. El Dorado’s wild and colorful history is re-created in a replica of a 1920s oil boomtown, complete with rutted streets. At Jacksonport State Park, the restored courthouse museum houses exhibits themed If These Walls Could Talk, incorporating first-person dialogue audio, court records, and vintage photos to tell the town’s story. Nearby, on the river’s shore, a restored sternwheel paddleboat, the Mary Woods No. 2, re-creates the life of a paddleboat crew in the late 1930s.

Two state parks are living museums, with flesh-and-blood characters demonstrating daily life during a specific time period. Historic Washington State Park is an entire town of 30 restored nineteenth-century structures, including the courthouse, which serves as its visitor center, and a restaurant that serves some of the best Southern cooking you will find in the state. In the mountains of north-central Arkansas, the Ozark Folk Center is a village within a town captured in time. It is a hands-down, no-contest favorite with travel writers as one of the most unique attractions in the country. Many stories of the folk center begin with, “If you can only do one thing when you are in the Ozarks, visit the Ozark Folk Center.”

At Toltec State Park, you can tour the mounds and an earthen embankment that are the remains of a large ceremonial and governmental complex that was inhabited here from A.D. 600 to 1050. Or you can have a more hands-on experience at a primitive pottery workshop at Parkin Archeological Park. Many scholars believe Parkin to be the American village of Casqui that Hernando de Soto chronicled during his 1541 expedition. The head pots recovered at this archaeological site are on display in the park museum and considered to be the most perfectly preserved in the country. Both parks are National Historic Landmarks and operate research stations with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, giving you an opportunity to see firsthand the result of careful excavation and laboratory analysis.

At every park you will find events and programs designed to enhance your experience, all of them well within any vacation budget. In fact, a lot of them are free or for the cost of your materials. From interpreter-led guided hikes exploring the park and the medicinal and edible foliage along the trail, to using handheld GPS units to find hidden geocaches, you will find park staff provide a number of creative ways for you to get more out of your visit.

JACKSONPORT STATE PARK ON THE WHITE RIVER

CAPTURED IN TIME IN MOUNTAIN VIEW

Ozark Folk Center (870-269-3851; www.ozarkfolkcenter.com), 1032 Park Avenue, Mountain View. In picturesque Mountain View, the Folk Music Capital of the World, you will find the only park in the country dedicated to the preservation and explanation of the Ozark Mountain way of life. The idea for the Ozark Folk Center originated with the success of the Arkansas Folk Festival that started here in 1963, and the folk center manages to capture the feel of those festival days on a daily basis between the months of April and October. The Ozark Mountain people were known for their ability to survive off the land with their own two hands, with little influence from the outside world, crafting their tools and their toys and making their own kind of music. Start your trip back in time at the Crafts Village (open April 15 through September 30, Wednesday through Saturday 10–5 and Tuesday through Sunday 10–5 in October), touring the shops of 24 artisans demonstrating basketry, blacksmithing, printing, broom making, quilting, woodcarving, pottery, and several other pioneer skills. Their products are useful, and they are also works of art. Did you know that there are over 20 different uses for a broom? Of course, if you buy one or have one made for you, you won’t want to let it touch a floor.

The Crafts Village is also where you are likely to find Tina Marie Wilcox, master gardener of the lush folk center grounds and also known as Widder Wilcox, an Ozark Mountain widow who shares her knowledge of mountain yarbs and their uses. Wilcox’s character is a composite personality, rather than a depiction of a real person, but she will completely take you in if you haven’t met her before the presentation. You might believe she is the uneducated, backwoods character she portrays, rather than a nationally acclaimed herbalist, on the International Herb Association’s Board of Directors, a member of the Herb Society of America, the Arkansas Native Plant Society, and the American Botanical Council. Widder Wilcox’s engaging chat with you, perhaps on the deck by the schoolhouse, will endear her to you and the toddlers, teenagers, and senior citizens who happen to join you. It will also make you formidable competition on Survivor, able to feed and clothe yourself with just foliage from the forest. Or at least educate you about a good idea of a few herbs you can grow at home, and not just for use in the kitchen.

Of course, it’s the music that gives the Ozark Folk Center and Mountain View its charm, and the park’s 1,025-seat theater (open April through October, Thursday through Saturday, shows start at 7 p.m.) hosts folk music concerts and gospel sings that will give a glimpse into the music that has serenaded the lives of the Ozark Mountain people for generations. You will also find folk musicians performing on the grounds of the Crafts Village during the day. Check the park’s website for details on the celebrity concert series that includes nationally known acts like Kathy Mattea.

The Cabins at Dry Creek are nestled in the woods, but not too far away from the restaurant where you can enjoy an Ozarks version of good old Southern cooking. The rustic cabins feature a number of modern amenities, including wireless Internet and cable television. The modest decor is in keeping with the place and the era it portrays, and the ironwork in the bathrooms was forged in Mountain View at the acclaimed Stone County Ironworks. Homemade apple preserves are available for sale at the counter, and you might want to take two. The lodge is open year-round, but the restaurant is only open mid-April through early November, Monday through Saturday 8–7, Sunday 8–2 p.m.

Each spring, the park also conducts an Ozark Folk School, offering instruction in traditional Ozark crafts, music, and gardening. Elderhostels—an educational week of programs, classes, lectures, etc. for those 55 years of age or older—are scheduled throughout the season with folk themes ranging from “Hill Culture” to “Crafts and Songs.”

Interpretation—It’s Not Translation

It’s funny, when many people read a park brochure and see a reference to the park’s interpretive services, they think it means language translation for foreign nationals. In Arkansas, you will find it means a degreed professional, certified by the National Association of Interpreters, whose sole goal is to help you get the most out of your visit to their park. Arkansas is one of a few states in which all of the interpreters are certified, and a number of them are recognized nationally for their knowledge and achievements.

They are experts on the natural resources, the local heritage, and in designing creative ways for you to make an intellectual and emotional connection to their parks. This is a godsend for parents looking for ways to unplug their children from their sedentary worlds. But interpretive programming is not just for kids; most parents wish their kids would take a nice Dutch oven cooking workshop and help out in the kitchen. For $25, you will learn the art of cooking with cast iron, and the workshop includes both a meal and a Dutch oven of your own.

Arkansas’s interpretive staff is absolutely passionate about their mission. Many of them are members of reenactment troupes that travel the country demonstrating a particular era in which they specialize. Historic Washington State Park is probably the most frequent site of these performances, with humorous testimony of local scandals portrayed in the town’s courtroom. Be prepared to do your civic duty, as park visitors are frequently called upon to serve on the jury. Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park in northwest Arkansas is the site of the state’s largest battle reenactment (every other year) that commemorates the historic Civil War battle that occurred there. Prairie Grove alternates annually as host for the event with the national site at Pea Ridge.

Arkansasstateparks.com

You will find very specific information about each of Arkansas’s state parks, their facilities, programs, and events on the state park website. The Park Finder map will show you where the parks are located, and then you are just a click away from details about the park. Each park has a mini-site that describes its history and unique features. Trail descriptions and maps are posted here, most in a downloadable format easy to print before you leave home. Fees and rates specific to the park are posted, like kayak rental rates, museum hours, and ticket prices.

If you need some help filling your time, the site has a section called Plan a Trip for inspiration. The itineraries are set up by region and by areas of interest. There is also a section called See & Do that will let you figure out what you want to do first, and then find the park that fits the bill.

Once you have made up your mind about where you want to go and what you want to do, you can book your room, cabin, or campsite online. You’ll also find some clever ideas for camping here, particularly if equipment, or setting it up, is a problem. You can rent a complete RV at Bull Shoals-White River ($80/day), Lake Charles or Millwood ($70/day); and Cane Creek State Park ($70/day). This economical rate entitles you to temporary ownership of a 29-foot trailer with heat and air-conditioning, private bath with shower, deck with gas grill, refrigerator, microwave, stove, and television. Cooking and eating utensils are included, but your linens are not furnished. The RV comfortably sleeps eight and is permanently set up at a park campsite, so you have nothing to worry about except what to cook for dinner or where to wet your hook.

For $50 a day, you can rent one of two tepees permanently set up on campsites overlooking Lake Bailey, the Petit Jean State Park’s 100-acre lake that is perfect for fishing and pedal boating. Each tepee sleeps up to six people and comes with foam sleeping pads, a battery-powered lantern, propane cook stove, ice chest, canoe, and personal floatation devices. A picnic table and grill are located just outside each tepee for easy meal preparation and enjoyment overlooking the lake. DeGray Lake Resort State Park offers tepee camping with a twist: the yurt. A yurt is a large, round, high-walled tent with electricity, wood floors, screened windows, and a door that can be locked. It is equipped with cots, a lantern, stove, and ice chest. It can sleep six easily, but bring your own linens.