We're deep in the Ouachita National Forest near Hollis, and a U.S. representative, French Hill of Little Rock, is at the wheel. Hill pulls over on this unseasonably warm day in late November. Also along for the ride is Stacy Hurst, who at the time was director of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism.
We set up folding chairs and enjoy deli sandwiches for lunch while looking at Forked Mountain. It's quiet on this Monday, and the scenery is far more beautiful than most people expect to find this close to the state's largest city.
Hill, a former banker whose family has camped and hiked in this area for decades, outlines his vision for improving the recreational opportunities in the Ouachita Mountains west of Little Rock. Thanks in part to the rapid growth of northwest Arkansas, the Ozarks and its treasures such as the Buffalo National River now see record numbers of visitors. With the exception of the old tourist city of Hot Springs, the Ouachita Mountains remain an underutilized asset.
We're in an era when outdoor recreation plays a bigger role than ever in economic development. In the previous century, economic development centered on what's known as smokestack chasing: luring manufacturers. In this century, it's all about attracting and retaining talented people. And young, educated workers increasingly are choosing places that offer mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing and additional outdoor pursuits.
Since entering Congress in 2015, Hill has been focused on the Flatside Wilderness Area, which is part of the Ouachita National Forest in Perry County. His Flatside Wilderness Enhancement Act was signed into law in 2019 and added 640 acres known as the Bethune Woods.
Hill now wants to add another 2,215 acres to Flatside. Staff members for Hill and U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman from Hot Springs met for months last year to iron out differences. Westerman, whose district includes much of the national forest, is an engineer and forester. He's a graduate of Yale University's School of the Environment.
Nat Mund, the Southern Environmental Law Center's director of federal affairs, says Flatside ensures that "some of the most rugged country in the Ouachita Mountains is protected not only for hunters, hikers and horseback riders but as world-class habitat for black bear and wild turkey."
The original Flatside designation took place in 1984 and covered 10,105 acres.
The land Hill hopes to add was acquired from the Weyerhaeuser Co. in 1996. It's surrounded by U.S. Forest Service lands to the south and east. It's bordered on the west by lands that are managed commercially by Green Bay Packaging, which operates a large pulp and containerboard mill near Morrilton.
Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson says inclusion of Forked Mountain to the wilderness area will "provide greater hunting access to otherwise remote locations while also preserving the landscape that gives our state its moniker. The value that the encompassed streams, trees and wildlife will bring to Arkansans and visitors is important to the state."
Austin Booth, director of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, says Forked Mountain "is widely known for its beauty and large trees. The streams flowing from the mountain include small waterfalls and other water features that add value to the user experience. ... Arkansas' conservation partnerships are unique, and our state's history of public and private landowner collaboration to conserve wild places is strong."
Long before he was in Congress, Hill gave one of the best talks I've ever heard at a meeting of the Arkansas Historical Association. Like me, Hill enjoys studying Arkansas history. His talk in April 2009 on the campus of Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia was titled "Opposites Attract: How a Conservative Texan Helped a Liberal Arkansan Enact the Sweeping Arkansas Wilderness Act of 1984."
The Arkansas Conservation Coalition was formed to convince Congress to set aside tens of thousands of acres of national forest across the state in designated wilderness areas. Its success in doing so came on the 20th anniversary of the federal Wilderness Act of 1964. That legislation authorized the government to select tracts within existing federal lands and define them as wilderness. These areas would be off-limits to road construction, timber harvesting, mining and other commercial activities. All motorized vehicles would be banned.
People still would be allowed to hike and paddle into such areas in order to camp, hike, climb, hunt and fish.
"While there have been U.S. forest reserves dating to President Harrison in the 1890s, it was President Teddy Roosevelt who established the Forest Service in 1905 and dedicated more than 150 million acres for future generations," Hill said that day. "Included among these extraordinary resources were both the Arkansas National Forest in 1907 (renamed the Ouachita National Forest in 1924) and the Ozark National Forest in 1908.
"In 1977, President Jimmy Carter requested that the Forest Service undertake a review of all potential wilderness areas across the country and make recommendations to Congress. The Forest Service was required to assess each potential area for wilderness designation as to presence of rare plants or animals; historic, recreational or sites of solitude; man's existing impact in the area; and the potential impact on economic development or nearby private land ownership and use."
The coalition sent teams to assess sites in both national forests, the Ozark and Ouachita. Coalition leaders suggested the inclusion of 11 areas covering 138,195 acres. The Forest Service plan later proposed the inclusion of 45,701 acres. In April 1979, Carter endorsed the Forest Service recommendations.
U.S. Rep. Beryl Anthony Jr., a Democrat from El Dorado whose family has deep roots in the forest products industry, offered legislation to enact the Forest Service recommendations while also appropriating funds for roads and timber leasing in disputed areas. He said the timber industry would only support "responsible wilderness."
Coalition members persuaded U.S. Sen. David Pryor and U.S. Rep. Bill Alexander, both Democrats, to request that the Forest Service delay development in the disputed areas. In February 1982, Republican Gov. Frank White, an avid hiker and canoeist, issued a proclamation in favor of the coalition's plan. Another conservative, nationally syndicated columnist George Will, argued in an August 1982 column for more wilderness areas.
Members of the coalition were holding out hope that Democratic U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas would introduce a bill supporting their position. Before Bumpers could act, support came from what many considered an unlikely source: U.S. Rep. Ed Bethune of Searcy, a conservative Republican.
Bethune announced in April 1983 that he would introduce legislation to designate Flatside as wilderness. It was the only area chosen by the coalition in his district. Bethune also told reporters he would like to see all 11 areas recommended by the coalition included in a bill.
"Bethune's action prompted the Arkansas delegation's only other Republican, U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison, to take a position," Hill said. "By the end of 1983, Hammerschmidt and Alexander had sided with Anthony and co-sponsored his Forest Service-backed bill. Arkansas' wilderness legislation was now deadlocked in the House, and the state's two senators had yet to take any action."
Bethune didn't let up, gaining endorsements from chambers of commerce and even the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission). On the final day of the 1983 session, Bumpers and Pryor introduced a bill that was almost a duplicate of what Bethune had filed in the House.
On the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in February 1984, Bumpers and Bethune held a public hearing. Pryor would have joined them but was attending his mother's funeral. A second set of hearings was held in Washington two months later.
At the time, Hill was serving on the staff of U.S. Sen. John Tower, a Republican from Texas.
"Having grown up in Arkansas and having spent many boyhood hours in the national forests, I had closely followed the House logjam and was eager to help my lifelong friend Don Hamilton and the coalition spark unusual support in the Senate," Hill said. "In order to persuade Senator Tower to co-sponsor wilderness legislation outside his home state, I needed a solid case. With help from state government's Joe David Rice, we discovered that Texans were the top source of tourists in Arkansas. The senator was amused but nonetheless agreed to sponsor the bill. He announced his intent on Feb. 20, 1984, in a statement inserted in the Congressional Record.
"He described the typical visitor to Arkansas as a 43-year-old Texan traveling with his family. He concluded his endorsement with a critical caveat: 'While I'm in support of Texans enjoying their beautiful wilderness, I will never concede which state has better football teams.' It was rare for an out-of-state senator to co-sponsor another state's bill. And it was more shocking to some that Tower--conservative Republican, powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee-- would endorse an environmental bill."
Capitol Hill observers were shocked to see Bumpers and Tower in the same camp. One Bumpers aide said he was "delighted but it sure is strange."
A March 1984 Arkansas Gazette editorial began "Amazing yes, but true" and noted that Tower had shown "more support for conservation in Arkansas than Anthony, Alexander and Hammerschmidt." A Pine Bluff Commercial editorial was headlined "Tower of Strength."
Tower even used a Teddy Roosevelt quote that Hill had given him: "The civilized people of today look back with horror at their medieval ancestors who wantonly destroyed great works of art or sat slothfully by while they were being destroyed. We have passed that stage. We treasure pictures and scriptures. But we are, as a whole, still in that low state of civilization where we do not understand that it is also vandalism to destroy or to permit the destruction of what's beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest or a species of mammal or bird."
The Senate passed the bill in August 1984. House passage followed, and President Ronald Reagan signed the bill on Oct. 19, 1984. Tower and his daughter were killed in a plane crash in April 1991.
"It was just like him to disagree vigorously with Senator Bumpers on arms control but link arm in arm and work for the common good of their constituents and preserve spaces of solitude for generations to come," Hill said.
Hill has worked in recent years to bring state government, Central Arkansas Water and organizations such as the Nature Conservancy of Arkansas into the fold as he attempts to create a recreational corridor in the Ouachita Mountains.
Hill was present in June 2021 when it was announced that Blue Mountain--the third peak in the chain of Maumelle Pinnacles that includes Pinnacle Mountain and Rattlesnake Ridge--had been purchased from Potlatch Deltic by the Nature Conservancy and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.
At that same event, it was announced that the state parks system would operate the Lake Sylvia Recreation Area and the Girl Scouts' former Camp Ouachita under an agreement with the Forest Service.
Last month, Hill, Hutchinson and Hurst held an event to mark completion of the Blue Mountain Natural Area trailhead and its parking lot. Almost 14 miles of trails are expected to be available to the public later this year.
"We're creating a nationally recognized corridor from Fort Roots in North Little Rock to the Ouachita National Forest," Hill said. "This is a part of that chain."