Arkansas: The Natural State Also Delivers Plenty of History
The former Hempstead County Courthouse serves as the visitor center for Historic Washington State Park in southwest Arkansas. SCROLL to the bottom to see a gallery of photos!
We fell in love with Arkansas last year after visiting only a few of the state’s highlights—Lake Ouachita, Hot Springs National Park and Arkansas Post National Memorial. Motivated by our first impression, we plan to visit as many of the 52 state parks in Arkansas as we can. To get started, we made a road trip that looped through the southern part of the state and included five state parks and a national historic site. The trip reinforced our love for the beauty of Arkansas, and we learned more about its history.
HISTORIC WASHINGTON
Located only 9 miles northwest of Hope, Ark., and I-30 Exit 30, Historic Washington transports visitors back to the 19th century and brings history to life with a well-preserved village that is easy to walk from end to end. It’s also possible to take a driving tour of the park, which is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Of the nearly 50 historic buildings at the park, you should begin by going to the visitor center in the Hempstead County Courthouse (built in 1874). It includes exhibits on both levels of the two-story building with the restored courtroom on the upper level being the most interesting. The visitor center includes a gift shop on the first floor where you can purchase tickets for guided tours of the park’s homes and museums. There is no charge for self-guided tours.
The top attraction for us at Historic Washington was the towering magnolia tree across the street from the Old Town Square and next to the Royston Log House. Planted in 1839, the tree stands taller and occupies more space than any magnolia tree we’ve ever seen. Its twisted trunk and enormous drooping branches give the appearance of a haunted tree—something that could provide a terrifying setting for a Snow White or Harry Potter movie.
Other attractions include the Blacksmith Shop, Weapons Museum, Print Museum, Black History Museum and Williams Tavern, which serves home cooking daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Go to www.HistoricWashingtonStatePark.com for more information.
A highlight of Historic Washington is traveling back in time and seeing what the old courthouse looked like.
Doug enjoys the view from the porch of the Royston log home at Historic Washington.
A giant magnolia tree stands out as the most memorable site at Historic Washington.
WHITE OAK LAKE
Nature lovers will want to drive through the Ouachita River Valley and make beautiful White Oak Lake State Park a priority destination. With 725 acres, it is the second largest lake in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission system and features an L-shape with many coves that are ideal for a scenic boat trip or an excellent fishing excursion. The park offers many boat ramps and access points to the lake for year-round fishing and boating. It also includes 45 campsites along the lakeshore and a campground with a bathhouse and restroom.
As hikers, we enjoyed the nature trails that include the Spring Branch Trail (.35 miles), Beech Ridge Trail (2 miles) and Coastal Plain Trail (3 miles). Bikers or serious hikers can tackle the Fern Hollow Hike/Bike Trail (10 miles). All the trails begin and end in the campground where there is ample parking at the trailheads. You can rent bicycles at the park’s visitor center/store.
The store also carries fishing supplies, licenses, boat rentals and souvenirs. Other facilities include a picnic area and pavilion, playground and a screened-in group pavilion. For a fee, you can reserve the group pavilion, which sits on a hit overlooking the lake and would be ideal for a family reunion or another large event. Go to www.ArkansasStateParks.com for details.
White Oak Lake State Park in southwest Arkansas delivers a beautiful setting for fishing and boating.
POISON SPRINGS BATTLEGROUND
The first of three Civil War battles of the Union Army’s Red River Campaign took place in southwest Arkansas at the site of Poison Springs Battleground State Park. The battle took place on April 18, 1964, when Confederate troops attacked and captured a Union wagon train hauling corn to nearby Camden, Ark. The Union loss was 301 men killed, wounded or missing. Confederate casualties totaled 114 men.
Poison Springs Battleground State Park commemorates a Civil War battle over 198 wagons of corn. Most of the corn was destroyed in the battle.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the Confederate force outnumbered the Union soldiers by 2,500 men and won the battle when attacking for the third time. The first two attacks were repelled by black Union troops that included many former slaves from Arkansas and Missouri. The encyclopedia reports the following:
“The Southern troops then turned their attention to the wounded and captured soldiers of the First Kansas; both Union and Confederate accounts agree that many of the black troops were killed after the battle was over.”
As a result of the battle, General Frederick Steele of the Union Army abandoned his encampment at Camden and retreated to his main base in Little Rock, Ark.
The park features an excellent nature trail that is easy to walk and goes through a forest of beech, pine and sweet gum trees. It’s pretty, but you’ll need insect repellant for the hike. The park also has outdoor interpretive exhibits and picnic sites but no campground. It is located at 665 Hwy 76, Chidester, AR 71726. The park is open all year with no admission charge.
Note: In case you’re wondering like we did about the “poison” in the springs, here’s what the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says about that issue:
“The name Poison Spring was known to Camden area residents at the time of the engagement and was used in battle reports, but its origins are uncertain. Later legends suggested that Union soldiers became ill after drinking the cold spring water, but no contemporary accounts confirm this story.”
ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF NATURAL RESOURCES
The drive on Arkansas Highway 7 from Camden to El Dorado, near the Arkansas/Louisiana border, passes by the small town of Smackover and the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources. Don’t fail to stop at the museum. Admission is free, and the state-of-the-art exhibits are fun and educational. The museum tells the story of the oil and brine discoveries that turned Smackover into a boomtown in the 1920s.
Inside the museum, you’ll be able to walk through the reproduction of a boomtown, with shops, gas pumps and even a jail. Antique trucks are parked on the street, and many exhibits explain the origins of oil and what’s involved in drilling for it. There is a short film in the theater.
We especially enjoyed seeing the outdoor exhibits of the pumps, derricks and other equipment for extracting oil from the ground in the area. The 112-foot replica of an oil derrick stands out as the most impressive piece. You’ll find the museum about 2 miles south of Smackover (4087 Smackover Highway).
SOUTH ARKANSAS ARBORETUM
Another highlight of the Ouachita River Valley is the South Arkansas Arboretum on the north side of El Dorado, Ark. The arboretum features paved trails that circle through 12 acres of plants native to the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas. Besides towering pine and oak trees, the arboretum includes flowering camellias and azaleas as well as roses and many other flowers.
The arboretum also has a pavilion, gazebo and clean restrooms. It served as a great place to take a break from driving and go for a leisurely stroll in a beautiful setting.
Finding the arboretum gave us a slight challenge because the address we had was 1506 Mt. Holly Road, but the entrance is on North Timberlane Drive. It shares a large parking lot with a youth facility that has an address of 501 N. Timberlane Drive, El Dorado, AR 71730. Use the Timberlane address in your navigation system.
The South Arkansas Arboretum offers a relaxing stroll through diverse vegetation that represents the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas.
PRESIDENT CLINTON BIRTHPLACE HOME
When traveling through the southwest corner of Arkansas, you’ll probably be on I-30 and pass through Hope. Make time to stop at the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home. It’s only a 2-mile drive from the interstate on Highway 278 to 117 S. Hervey Street and will give you an easy photo opportunity of the modest home where the 42nd president of the United States lived as a child.
The birthplace home incudes a visitor center and the Virginia Clinton Kelley Memorial Garden. The center features interpretive exhibits about President Clinton’s early life in Arkansas and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Tours are offered every half hour, and admission is free.
ARLA’S SHOCKING MOMENT
Arla: Poison Springs? Not a catchy name for the trickle of water running through this heavily forested area of rolling hills. How did it get this title? Myth or fact? I asked Doug, and he didn’t know, so he used Google to find out. The answer left me cold: Nobody seems to know how the springs earned its name.
Poison Springs is clearly a mystery to be solved. My primary concern is obvious—somebody could get poisoned here. Perhaps warning signs should be posted around the spring—Don’t drink the water! It might not be necessary. It only took me one glance to decide that I wouldn’t be tasting the water to see if it was lethal. I suppose Arkansas State Parks leaders have conducted scientific analysis of the water and found it relatively safe. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so accessible via the park’s nature trail. I hope so. When you visit Poison Springs, follow my example and don’t drink the water.
LINDA’S TAKEAWAY
Linda: There’s a big difference between knowing about something and seeing it. Our drive from Louisiana into the southwest corner of Arkansas created that experience for me and gave me a clearer understanding of my home state’s geography. I knew that Texas is our neighbor to the west and Arkansas to the north, but I didn’t know the three states touch the same point—near Zylks, La., which is about 30 miles south of Texarkana.
DOUG’S HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT
Doug: I loved learning about Smackover—the boomtown that served as the hub of the south Arkansas oil rush of the 1920s. Nearly overnight, the town attracted 25,000 new residents and $600 million in investments were made in the area to drill for oil. The enthusiasm was justified because drillers found oil with 95 percent of the wells dug between 1922 and 1925.
While Smackover sounds like the perfect name created to describe a rough and rowdy boomtown, its origin goes back to the 1830s when the town was founded as Sumac Couvert (meaning covered in dense sumac vegetation). The French name quickly became converted to Smackover because it sounded like Sumac Couvert and more easily rolled off the tongues of locals.
GEE WHIZ FACTS
While the state features many names with connections to its early French explorers, Hernando de Soto and his soldiers from Spain in 1541 were the first Europeans to set foot in what is now Arkansas.
The word “Arkansas” is a French pronunciation (“Arcansas”) of a Native American (Quapaw tribe) word “akakaze,” which means “land of downriver people,” or the Sioux word “akakaze” meaning “people of the south wind.” The French added an “s” to make it a plural.
Due to its location on the Southwest Trail, Historic Washington State Park has been visited by legendary frontiersmen such as James Bowie, Sam Houston and Davy Crockett.
From 1863 to 1864, Historic Washington Park served as the Confederate capital of Arkansas because the Union army had captured Little Rock in 1863.
President Clinton was born in Hope, Ark., as William Jefferson Blythe III, named for his father who died in an automobile accident three months before the future president was born. Although young Billy went by the name of Clinton from the time his mother remarried, his stepfather never formally adopted him.
