Not far from the little town of Ethel in Arkansas County, a gravel road off the highway leads to several oxbow lakes in the heart of the White River National Wildlife Refuge. Our world contains many beautiful places, but in summer, none is more gorgeous than this verdant piece of river-bottom real estate.
The cypress trees in the lakes help make it so. These primeval giants (some have survived more than a millennium) live with their feet in the water and their knees in the air. Their broad, craggy buttresses are like whimsical sculptures shaped by nature’s hand. Their feathery leaves, greener than green this season, adorn long, horizontal branches that spread over each lake like cooling canopies. On a hot summer day, fishing in the shade of these ancients is a great way to stay cool and enjoy some quiet time away from the crowds.
Bass live in the emerald waters of the oxbows, and catfish and bluegills and crappie — lots of them. Because of these lakes’ remoteness, however, and because it is often difficult to launch a boat, visiting anglers are few. In summer, one might fish a lake for days without seeing another soul. And while you are there alone, or with a special companion, if you drop in a cricket or minnow, or cast a crankbait or spinner, you will catch fish after fish after fish, and your angling itch will be soothed.
Abundant fish provide endless opportunities for fun. But many who visit the refuge come primarily to “get away from it all” and enjoy this haven’s plentiful wildlife and natural beauty. If fish are caught, that’s just icing on the cake.
Should you visit this season, watch closely, and you will see flashes of sunshine yellow in the cypress trees — stunning prothonotary warblers gleaning insects for their young. Breath deeply, and you will smell the evergreen fragrance of cypress needles and the redolence of rich, bottomland earth and fertile water. Listen, and you will hear the haunting calls of barred owls — “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?” — and the sonorous hum of summer cicadas. Relax, and you will feel your cares melt away. Senses stir every minute you are there.
We are fortunate, indeed, that a group of foresighted individuals in the 1930s pushed the federal government to protect the land that is now the White River National Wildlife Refuge. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the refuge by executive order in 1935, and the acquisition of 110,000 acres was completed soon after, primarily for the purpose of waterfowl conservation. The lands were acquired using funds raised by sales of federal duck stamps to hunters.
Prior to 1992, the refuge’s total acreage was 112,771 acres. But that year, an innovative land exchange that traded private Idaho timberland for wetlands in Arkansas added approximately 40,000 acres to the refuge’s north end. Twelve years later, the refuge was officially renamed the Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge in honor of the former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator who facilitated the land swap.
Today, the 90-mile-long refuge stretches along the White River from Clarendon to the river’s confluence with the Mississippi, covering 160,756 acres in Arkansas, Desha, Monroe and Phillips counties. The refuge contains one of the largest remaining bottomland hardwood forests in the Mississippi River Valley, including more than 300 lakes and numerous rivers, sloughs and bayous. The resulting habitat is a haven for fish and wildlife of all sorts.
The importance of the refuge to wildlife, particularly migratory waterfowl and songbirds, cannot be understated. The bottomlands the refuge encompasses have been designated as Wetlands of International Importance. The American Bird Conservancy named the White River NWR a Globally Important Bird Area, and Audubon Arkansas has recognized it as an Arkansas Important Birding Area. The White River NWR is also part of The Nature Conservancy’s Big Woods Project to conserve this huge floodplain ecosystem.
A visit might provide glimpses of bald eagles, American alligators and, some hope, an ivory-billed woodpecker, which was believed to have been discovered in 2004 farther north in the Big Woods. The White River is also home to Arkansas’ only population of native black bears, to some of the nation’s biggest flocks of wintering waterfowl and to a myriad of other wildlife, including 273 species of birds, 44 species of mammals, 76 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 96 species of fish.
Summer visitors will find much to do in the refuge but should prepare for hot, humid conditions, mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers.
A good place to begin your visit is the visitor center on Arkansas 1 in St. Charles. This 10,000-square-foot facility houses a bookstore, an environmental-education classroom and interpretive exhibits that focus on bottomland hardwood forests, prehistoric animals, the U.S. Civil War and Native American history. Refuge personnel are also developing several miles of interpretive trails that will loop around the visitor center.
While at the visitor center, pick up a refuge brochure that shows area roads. Then, if it hasn’t rained hard and made the roads impassable, take a drive through the scenic river bottoms and enjoy views of the beautiful oxbows, the broad White River and the massive cypress trees that lend grandeur to the landscape. Be sure you have a camera so you can snap some photos, and binoculars you can use to better see the deer, raccoons, birds, bears and other creatures you might encounter along the way.
A great place for a walk is the 1.2-mile trail to Arkansas’ champion cypress tree. Visitor-center personnel can direct you there, where you’ll see a tree so massive it boggles the mind. With a height of 120 feet and a girth of more than 40 feet, this 2,000-year-old colossus is the largest and oldest living thing in the state.
Wildlife watching, fishing, hiking, hunting and more: The White River NWR offers so much to do for the half million people who visit each year. Some might think such a place would be a poor choice for a summer visit. For many, though, beauty, solitude, abundant wildlife and good fishing combine to make this Natural State gem a special summer haven where escape is assured and good memories are made.