OPINION | REX NELSON: Flood control

Economic benefitsresult from five dams built along tributaries of the Mississippi River in Arkansas

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette illustration by John Deering.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette illustration by John Deering.

I stand at the overlook off Arkansas 5 and stare down at Greers Ferry Dam, with placid Greers Ferry Lake on one side and the cold, swift water of the Little Red River on the other.

I try to picture what this spot would have looked like on Oct. 3, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy came here for the dedication of the dam. The following month, an assassin's bullet ended the young president's life in Dallas.

What a day that must have been for the poor rural state of Arkansas. Discussions had begun in Washington about building a series of dams along the White and Little Red rivers just after the Great Flood of 1927, which had affected Arkansas more than any other state.

A year after another huge flood in 1937, Congress passed the Flood Control Act and began moving forward with plans for dams along tributaries of the Mississippi, though American involvement in World War II delayed that work.

"Shortly after passage of the Flood Control Act, engineers began surveying the White River and its tributaries for locations to build a series of high concrete dams," Zackery Cothren writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Several locations were selected, and in 1944, the first of five dams that would eventually be built in the White River basin was completed at Norfork in Baxter County. Norfork Dam was followed by Bull Shoals Dam in 1951 and Table Rock Dam in 1959. In 1960, construction began simultaneously on Beaver and Greers Ferry dams.

"Greers Ferry Dam, named after a ferry operated on the Little Red River near where the dam was built, was completed in 1962. The dam measures 1,704 feet in length and stands 243 feet above the streambed of the Little Red River. It cost $46.5 million and created a reservoir of between 30,000 and 40,000 acres depending on water levels."

Greers Ferry Dam contains 856,000 cubic yards of concrete weighing 3.4668 billion pounds. Construction of the massive dam forced the relocation of families in Cleburne and Van Buren counties. Whole communities--Edgemont, Higden, Miller and Shiloh, to name a few--were inundated by the waters of Greers Ferry Lake.

"While there were many who were opposed to construction of the dam, no citizen protest had ever halted plans for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir," Cothren writes. "Most viewed opposition as futile. Despite the inundation of the majority of the county's most productive farmland, the positive economic impact of the dam and lake was immediate."

Cleburne County saw its population increase from 9,059 in 1960 to 24,046 by 2010. Heber Springs, the county seat, saw its population increase from 2,265 to 7,165 during that same 50-year period. Entrepreneurs set out to take advantage of the new lake and the fishing opportunities below the dam.

Billy Lindsey, who died last December at age 65, moved with his parents from Orange, Texas, to Heber Springs in the spring of 1965. Lindsey's father knew there were plans to stock trout in the cold water below the dam. The initial land purchase was just more than eight acres. Lindsey's Resort, which later became one of the country's best-known trout fishing camps, now encompasses 62 acres.

"My dad had a vision," Billy Lindsey said in a 2010 interview. "He could stand on that hill and see what's here today. Mom was questioning his sanity. We had a trout dock and a couple of cabins. We went two years with a trout-fishing business with no trout. Dad and Jim Collins, a trout biologist for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, went to the Spring River to harvest moss. They brought it home in a flatbed truck and sprigged it up and down the river like sprig grass in a yard."

The needed aquatic vegetation took hold, and the river was fully stocked with trout by 1967. A state record rainbow trout was caught the next year, and business began to take off.

Arkansas business titan Herbert Thomas Sr. also was convinced there was money to be made. Thomas had been born Feb. 14, 1899, in rural Ashley County in far south Arkansas. Thomas became convinced that the insurance industry could withstand economic downturns. He formed the Mutual Assessment Co. in 1923. By 1925, there were more than 10,000 policyholders, many of whom were rural Arkansas residents.

Thomas later incorporated First Pyramid Life Insurance Co. of America and set up shop in the Southern Trust Building in downtown Little Rock. He purchased the structure in 1937 and renamed it the Pyramid Life Building.

"Conscious of the importance of education for financial growth, Thomas served on the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees from 1943-51," writes Arkansas historian Rachel Silva Patton. "He was instrumental in the admission of the first Black student to the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1948 (Silas Hunt). Thomas was also involved in banking. He acquired City National Bank of Fort Smith in the mid-1950s as well as Citizens Bank of Booneville in 1963.

"Although he never ran for political office, Thomas was heavily involved in politics. He had a close relationship with J. William Fulbright and headed his initial Senate campaign after convincing Fulbright to run for an office higher than Arkansas' governorship. Thomas figured prominently in Kennedy's 1963 visit to Heber Springs."

Thomas and his wife Ruby had fallen in love with the area around Heber Springs. In 1961, Thomas purchased 500 acres for a development that would become known as Eden Isle. His political connections paid off in a big way.

"People had been buying up large chunks of bottomland in hopes that they could sell it to the government at a profit or end up with lakefront property after completion of a dam," Patton says. "After so many years with no progress by the federal government, most people gave up on those notions and sold out. For those wanting lakefront property, it was a gamble to buy land around the proposed dam site because no one knew exactly where the lake would be ... until Herbert Thomas came along.

"Thomas knew U.S. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills and Sens John L. McClellan and J. William Fulbright and was able to find out the location of the lake and its water level. He knew which land to purchase and when to purchase it. Thomas bought property historically owned by the Estes family and known as Estes Hill. It was the first location of the Heber Springs Airport so some people referred to it as the 'old airport.'"

Islands in Corps of Engineers lakes cannot be privately owned. Knowing this, Thomas built a causeway that would be above lake level so what would later become Eden Isle couldn't be classified as an island. Thomas had to build the causeway before the lake was filled. Once the lake filled up, 400 of Thomas' 500 acres were above water.

Thomas began selling lots for homes and initiated construction of what he hoped would be the finest vacation destination in the state, the Red Apple Inn. The lodge and restaurant opened in 1963, burned in 1964 following a kitchen fire, and reopened in 1965. Thomas was a perfectionist when it came to developing Eden Isle.

"Construction restrictions were to be enforced by a community corporation so that homes would blend into the landscape," Patton writes. "Houses were supposed to be relatively small and employ native stone, wood and glass construction with a tile roof. First Pyramid provided an architect and maintained a full-time engineer and construction force. The development also hired landscape architects to ensure that native trees and plants were protected and that yards were attractive yet low maintenance.

"Herbert and Ruby were very involved in the construction of homes and management of the restaurant at the Red Apple Inn. The inn consistently enjoyed high national ratings for food, lodging and service. People knew the area because of the Red Apple Inn, not because of Greers Ferry Lake or Heber Springs. In 1978, Red Apple's executive conference center opened in a new addition to the inn and accommodated groups of up to 120 people."

A book of Ruby Thomas' recipes titled "Feasts of Eden: Gracious Country Cooking from the Red Apple Inn" was among the best-selling items in the inn's gift shop for decades.

The inn was sold to Melvyn Bell, who made his fortune with a company known as Environmental Systems. Bell expanded his real estate holdings too quickly and found himself millions of dollars in debt. In the process, his properties fell into disrepair. The once grand Red Apple Inn was among the sad stories of decay by the early 1990s. Bell died at age 68 in 2006 following a battle with cancer.

Enter Dick and Patti Upton of Heber Springs. Patti Upton began her company, Aromatique, in 1982 when she mixed items native to Arkansas such as acorns, pine cones, sweetgum balls and hickory nuts then covered them with spices and oils. She called it 'The Spirit of Christmas" and put it on sale in a friend's gift shop. Her product took off.

Annette Green, president emeritus of the Fragrance Foundation of New York, once called Patti Upton "one of our industry's most creative visionaries. Her trailblazing concepts set the stage for the revolution in the enjoyment and appreciation of fragrance in the home."

The Uptons spent $4.2 million in 1995 to buy the Red Apple Inn and had to spend millions more on improvements to the facility, which by then even had a leaky roof. They didn't buy the nearby marina on Greers Ferry Lake.

"I had so much money invested in the Red Apple Inn, I might have been in the middle of a divorce if I had invested any more," Dick Upton said in a deposition for a lawsuit involving the marina.

Herbert Thomas, who died in March 1982 at age 83, likely would have been proud that the Uptons were able to bring his beloved Red Apple Inn back to its previous status as one of the South's nicest resorts.

There's even a Fay Jones-designed cottage on Eden Isle. The famous architect designed it for Bob Shaheen and Curt Goodfellow, the landscape architects who had been hired by Herbert Thomas to make Eden Isle something special. One of the things Thomas offered the two men was a lot in the resort community.

"After Shaheen and Goodfellow secured the land in 1963, the two men decided to pool their limited resources and construct a weekend cottage that both families could share," Patton writes. "In order to reduce construction costs, the men provided boulders and two-by-four boards salvaged from other construction projects on Eden Isle. They also contributed physical labor, lifting stones into place for site and foundation construction. They hired Jones to construct a house under a tight budget of $6,000 to $8,000."

Stoneflower was completed in 1965 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It was called Stoneflower because the upper story appears to grow out of a stone base. Jones' design would foreshadow the design of his most notable project, Thorncrown Chapel near Eureka Springs.

"The inspiration for Jones' design of Stoneflower was simple necessity," Patton writes. "The property owners were trying to build the home under a tight budget. They wanted something unique, but money was in short supply. When Jones first visited the site, he didn't have a specific design in mind. He found a pile of stone the men had gathered and a large number of two-by-fours."

" 'What are we going to do with all of those two-by-fours?' Jones asked. He came up with an idea of beams supporting the ceiling.

"This was a radical new look in home design, but it allowed him to utilize the great quantity of lumber," Patton writes. "Jones' solution to this design problem represented a turning point in his style from a horizontal focus to a vertical focus."

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