OPINION

REX NELSON: Caddo to Cossatot

I depart Glenwood, which is along the banks of the Caddo River in Pike County, and head west on U.S. 70. After about four miles, I turn onto Arkansas 84 and continue west.

The route takes me across the northern part of Pike County, which was carved out of Clark and Hempstead counties by the Arkansas Territorial Legislature in November 1833 and named after explorer Zebulon Pike. The county is best known for the diamond mine near Murfreesboro and for Lake Greeson. Those attractions are to the south of my route on this day.

"In 1900, Martin White Greeson, who owned property in Pike County and also owned and operated the Murfreesboro-Nashville Southwest Railroad, started a campaign for a dam on the Little Missouri River to alleviate flooding," Doris Russell Foshee writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "Congress finally approved the project in 1941 and authorized $3 million for it. Construction began on June 1, 1948, and finished on July 12, 1951. The dam was named Narrows Dam because of its narrow site. The lake was named Lake Greeson in honor of Martin Greeson."

There's not much traffic on Arkansas 84 as I pass through the communities of Lodi and Langley. At Langley, I head north on Arkansas 369 to check out the Albert Pike Recreation Area on the Little Missouri River. In the wee hours of June 11, 2010, a flash flood along the river killed 20 people as the river rose more than 20 feet in four hours. Dozens of campers were rescued by emergency workers.

"We started hearing children and women screaming and crying," one visitor, who had been asleep in her cabin, told reporters. "So we went to the door and opened the door, and they were trying to come up the hill to where our cabin was."

The force of the water was so great that it overturned recreational vehicles and peeled asphalt off roads. Most people were asleep when the flood began. The Little Missouri River was at 3 feet on that Thursday morning. After 7.6 inches of rain fell overnight, it was at 23.5 feet the next morning as National Guard helicopters flew over the area to survey the damage. A refrigerated truck was brought in to serve as a temporary morgue.

The U.S. Forest Service closed the campground and hasn't allowed camping since the flood. In May 2012, portions of the site were reopened for day use. This stretch of the Little Missouri remains popular with hikers and those just wishing to picnic along the river, though it would be nice if the Forest Service did more to maintain the grounds. I'm told that things are left in disrepair to discourage people from breaking the rules and camping out. When the water is at the right level, canoeists can float for almost 20 miles to the U.S. 70 bridge where the river runs into Lake Greeson.

The Little Missouri begins in Polk County and flows to the southeast through Montgomery and Pike counties. The river below Lake Greeson forms parts of the borders of Pike, Hempstead, Nevada, Clark and Ouachita counties before emptying into the Ouachita River.

After walking around Albert Pike, I head back down Arkansas 369, take a right and continue west on Arkansas 84. I'm soon in the northeast corner of Howard County. Like Pike County, Howard County has the Gulf Coastal Plain in the south and the Ouachita Mountains in the north. It was carved out of parts of Pike, Polk, Hempstead and Sevier counties in 1873. The population of Howard County was 13,789 in the 2010 census, fewer people than had lived there a century before. The county had 16,898 residents in the 1910 census.

The highest population ever recorded in Howard County was 18,565 people in the 1920 census. The county bottomed out in 1960 when there were just 10,878 residents. The last bale of cotton ginned in Howard County was in 1971 at Mineral Springs as timber management, poultry production and cattle grazing took hold.

Arkansas 84 runs into U.S. 278 at Umpire. I drive west on 278 so I can see the visitors' center at Cossatot River State Park-Natural Area. The Cossatot River begins southeast of Mena and flows south through Howard and Sevier counties before emptying into the Little River north of Ashdown. The upper part of the river is considered one of the top whitewater streams in this part of the country. Cossatot River State Park-Natural Area conserves a 12-mile section along the river. There are more than 30 rare plant and animal species in the park.

According to the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism: "The idea of establishing a natural area along the upper Cossatot surfaced in 1974, shortly after the Arkansas Environmental Preservation Commission was created. The panel later was renamed the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. In October 1975, its staff contacted the Weyerhaeuser Co., which owned the land, to discuss acquiring the Cossatot Falls area and other portions of the Cossatot's corridor. In January 1976, the commission presented a written proposal to Weyerhaeuser."

The Parks & Tourism Department joined the effort in 1984, and the two agencies prepared a joint proposal. The Nature Conservancy assisted with negotiations and land acquisition. On Nov. 19, 1987, the state Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission held a joint meeting with the Natural Heritage Commission. Gov. Bill Clinton announced that day that the state had joined forces with the Conservancy to buy the land. The Nature Conservancy acquired title to 4,144 acres on Dec. 23, 1987. Management responsibility was transferred to the state in July 1988.

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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

Editorial on 04/17/2019

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