An 1860s cabin in Eureka Springs was saved from demolition in the 1990s but is at risk again of being torn down, this time to make way for power lines proposed by Southwestern Electric Power Co., said Bruce Wright, owner of the cabin.
The power company applied with the Arkansas Public Service Commission to build high-voltage lines through Benton and Carroll counties in April 2013. The company submitted one preferred route and several alternative routes.
The commission approved an alternative route that partly follows Route 109 through southern Missouri and northern Arkansas earlier this year. The Route 109 option cuts through Wright's property where the cabin sits, he said.
SWEPCO's preferred option would also run through the property in the same location, Wright said. SWEPCO has filed a petition with the commission for a rehearing. The commission is to issue a response by June 9.
Six towers 130 feet to 160 feet high would be needed every mile to support the power lines, according to SWEPCO's proposal. A 150-foot-wide right of way also would be required.
On Tuesday, Wright put up a sign in front of the cabin protesting the power-lines plans. He said he is working to get the cabin on the National Register of Historic Places, hoping that will again save the cabin from demolition.
The square log cabin once sat in Pinkley Valley near Trigger Gap and the White River, Wright said. The former owner planned to demolish it because it was a hazard for cows that grazed nearby, he said.
Wright said he decided to buy the cabin and moved it onto his property north of Eureka Springs.
"I numbered each log and moved it here," Wright said.
June Westphal, an area historian and author, said she believes the cabin is from the original homestead of George Washington Pinkley and Mary Jane Harp. She said their daughter Cora Elizabeth Pinkley Call published many articles and books about the Ozarks, which played a part in attracting tourists from across the country to the region.
"She was a part of the group of writers who told the world what a wonderful place this is," Westphal said.
The Pinkleys homesteaded the land east of Eureka Springs before the city was established, Westphal said.
"It was wilderness land," Westphal said. "It was a few little homesteads here and there. They didn't do big plantations. They just wanted something of their own."
Westphal said the land where Wright moved the cabin is fitting. An old portion of Route 23, today known as Arkansas 23, runs past the property, Westphal said. That portion of the road was not updated with the rest of Arkansas 23 and today is known as County Road 222.
"It would have been wilderness road during the Civil War," Westphal said. "That was the only north-south way to get into here during the Civil War. Both armies moved it back and forth. That is a location that has some historical significance."
The one-room cabin sustained a family of five children, Westphal said. The children would have slept in the loft. The fireplace would have been used for cooking and providing warmth.
Mary Jane Fritsch, a neighbor of Wright's, rocked Tuesday in a swing on the front porch of the cabin. She said her family first moved to the region in 1918 when she was 5. At that time, the Spanish flu was rapidly spreading throughout Arkansas and the rest of the world, Fritsch said. World War I was drawing to a close with the signing of an armistice.
Fritsch's family moved to Eureka Springs because her father had kidney problems.
"Eureka Springs, it is good for the kidneys," said Fritsch, 100. She said doctors recommended the region because of the water there. Her father bought the 80 acres she still lives on that border Wright's property.
She remembers the cabin, where it sits now and where it originally sat in Pinkley Valley.
"Peggy Pinkley was my best friend for about 85 years before she died," Fritsch said. "We sat on this very porch one day in the spring."
Peggy Pinkley didn't know it was her uncle's cabin at the time, Fritsch said. She said she wondered what her friend would have thought if she had known.
Fritsch, like Wright and his mother, is opposed to SWEPCO's proposed plan to run high-voltage power lines through the region.
"We like this land because it is beautiful," Fritsch said, looking out on a forested ridge. "You can't put it back. When it's gone, it's gone."
Peter Main, SWEPCO's principal communications consultant, said the lines are needed to ensure future reliability of power in Benton and Carroll counties along with all of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri.
The transmission company is required to build the lines because a need was determined by the Southwest Power Pool. The pool is a regional organization under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Main said transmission companies typically receive variances for constructing power lines. He said the variance is usually 500 feet from the centerline approved by regulatory officials, like the Arkansas Public Service Commission. He said this variance can be used to avoid landmarks and residential property.
"SWEPCO will work with landowners to make line location adjustments within the approved route and variance when the adjustments are economically reasonable," Main said in an email.
The company can also ask for larger variances for specific reasons, Main said. However, he said, it has to be in the order approved by the commission. For instance, the Route 109 option approved by the commission has two additional variances. One is for 1,200 feet to avoid a group of properties. The other is for 750 feet to comply with the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Main said.
Main said SWEPCO is asking for a rehearing on its preferred Route 33 option. If approved, the route would also likely have a 500-foot variance. Extended variances at particular locations along the route could be proposed if hearings are allowed.
John Bethel, executive director of the Arkansas Public Service Commission, said the commission has 60 days to consider the petition for a rehearing filed by SWEPCO.
The commission has numerous options for responding to the petition request, Bethel said. He said one could be rehearing the case. Another could involve the commission changing its decision without another hearing. He said the commission could also deny the petition request.
If the request is denied, SWEPCO's last option would be to appeal the commission's decision to the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
The organization Save the Ozarks has also filed a petition for a rehearing. It claims that construction would cause unnecessary environmental damage. Members also claim that the power lines are not needed.
Metro on 06/01/2014