Exploring Its Diverse Terrains Key to Appreciating Arkansas

Exploring Its Diverse Terrains
Key to Appreciating Arkansas

By Jim Taylor, travel writer
Arkansas Tourism

Bright sunlight and a stiff breeze are skipping crisp sparkles across the surface of Blue Mountain Lake some 2,300 feet below the southern rim of Mount Magazine. In the distance, successive, blue-tinted ridges of the ancient Ouachita Mountains stretch east-west, the last of them defining the horizon.

On the north side of the western Arkansas mount, America's fourth longest stream -- in recent decades controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- flows its peaceful way southeastward from Fort Smith toward Little Rock. Beyond the Arkansas River's largely pastoral valley rise the Boston Mountains, in reality the southernmost of three eroded plateaus from which eons of erosion have carved the Ozark Mountains.

Viewed from Arkansas' highest peak, which climbs to 2,753 feet above sea level, the state's scenic beauty is on expansive display. Yet, there's much more to appreciate about Arkansas' landscape than even Magazine's supreme vistas reveal.

Though it is the smallest of the mainland American states lying entirely west of the Mississippi River, Arkansas is home to five major geographical regions and other distinctive subdivisions. The major regions are all shared with one or more neighboring states: the Ouachita Mountains with Oklahoma, for example, and the Ozarks with Missouri. And what the Mississippi River has done to eastern Arkansas, it has done from the southern tip of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

What distinguishes Arkansas' landscape stems not from its pieces being unique to the state, but rather from its variety of landforms in close proximity. Moreover, the various terrains are almost invariably coupled with one or more regional histories intimately bound with the land.

The Ouachita Mountains

Immediately north of Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park, water that last touched by the sunlight some 4,000 years ago steams forth from the earth, cascading down a mountainside adorned with deposited calcium carbonate and blue-green algae. In the mountains not far to the west, an abundance of high-quality quartz crystals has led the town of Mount Ida to proclaim itself "The Quartz Crystal Capital of the World."

The park's thermal springs and the crystals are natural wonders of the Ouachita Mountains, formed when a collision of prehistoric continents lasting some 15 million years forced horizontal layers of sedimentary rock up from the ocean floor, leaving the strata sometimes standing on end and sometimes completely overturned.

Though still scenic, it is in view of their antiquity that the Ouachitas become spectacular. By the time dinosaurs first walked the earth around 245 million years ago, erosion had -- for some 40 million previous years -- been robbing the Ouachitas of elevation. The small stones and impressive boulders that now line Ouachita Mountain streambeds are the weather-shattered remnants of peaks that likely towered more than 10,000 feet.

Visitors to the national park can explore the history surrounding the springs and relax in a thermal bath, then partake of the many tourist attractions in the long-standing resort town of Hot Springs. Quartz mines around Mount Ida allow visitors to pay a fee to dig their own crystals, and numerous area rock shops also have specimens available. Lodging and other amenities for experiencing the Ouachitas can be found at resorts and state parks located on DeGray Lake, Lake Ouachita and other lakes in the region, as well as at Hot Springs hostelries and Queen Wilhelmina State Park near Mena.

The Ozark Mountains

Along U.S. 71 in northwestern Arkansas, fog hangs cottony thick in the Boston Mountains valleys below Mount Gaylor as the yet concealed sun foreshadows its rise by tinting thin streamers of clouds with crimson and innumerable shades from orange to pink.

The Boston Mountains and two other plateaus, the Springfield and the Salem, were part of a regional uplift of the Earth's surface that geologists call the Ozark Dome. The continental wreck that formed the Ouachitas may have been a factor in its creation. Lifted as a unit, the dome's sedimentary rocks generally became only slightly tilted from their horizontal planes; and, thus, it is to some 300 million years of relentless erosion that the plateaus owe their mountainous appearance.

Particularly in Stone County in north-central Arkansas, rough Ozarks terrain kept mountain pioneers somewhat isolated from the outside world well into the 20th century, a situation that helped preserve traditional folk crafts, music and dance. At Mountain View, the Ozark Folk Center state park, music jam sessions on the Stone County Courthouse square and local festivals continue those traditions.

Other quintessential Ozarks experiences include a visit to Eureka Springs, a Victorian village situated near the rugged border of the Salem and Springfield plateaus; a float trip passing beneath soaring bluffs on the Buffalo National River; and a tour of Blanchard Springs Caverns near Mountain View or another of the limestone caves in the region.

The Arkansas River Valley

At the eastern foot of Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton, a raft of narrow barges, low in the water with cargo and steered downstream by a towboat, rides the ribbon of the Arkansas River toward Little Rock. The scene serves to remind, as do the cities and towns along the river's path, that the Arkansas was once a main thoroughfare of traffic within the state. Little Rock's location on the river helped it become the state's capital.

Between Fort Smith and Conway, the boundaries of the Boston Mountains plateau on the north and the Ouachitas on the south serve to delineate the river's valley as a distinct geographical region. Some geologists, however, list the valley as a subdivision of the Ouachitas, even though its rock strata are less disturbed than those in the mountains proper. Others see the valley as primarily a transitional zone between the two different mountain systems. Confusing the issue is the presence within the valley of three of Arkansas' most recognizable and isolated peaks: Magazine, Mount Nebo and Petit Jean. All three can be explored in mountaintop state parks.

The Fort Smith National Historic Site relates the history of a military outpost, established in December 1817 to quell fighting between members of the Cherokee and Osage tribes, that later became an Indian Territory border town where frontier justice was dispensed by "Hanging" Judge Isaac Parker. Downstream, Arkansas' wine country spreads out from the town of Altus and wineries offer tours.

Though Interstate 40 provides for a fast-paced trip through the scenic valley, another route is more suitable for leisure travelers in search of America where small towns still boast of things like pickles, peaches and spinach. U.S. 64 penetrates to the historic hearts of the valley towns strung like pearls along its path: Conway, Morrilton, Atkins, Russellville, Clarksville, Altus, Ozark, Alma, Van Buren, Fort Smith.

The Delta

A low-flying great egret gracefully propels itself along the shoreline, its snowy white plumage contrasting boldly against the muddy waters swirling past the end of an elevated boardwalk in Helena's Reach River Park. The Mississippi River is well into its long journey from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The mighty stream, aided by tributaries such as the Arkansas, White and St. Francis rivers, has virtually leveled all or part of 27 of Arkansas' easternmost counties, more than 15,000 square miles in all.

Known as the Delta, the area is part of the largest alluvial plain in the U.S., a vast territory sloping almost imperceptibly southward and extending from Cairo, Ill., to the Gulf. At the time of pioneer settlement, lowlands and swamps rich in virgin timber and wildlife covered the Delta. As it was cleared of its forests and drained, the Delta became home to a Deep South cotton culture and spawned traditions of blues and gospel music. Now, its bountiful harvests include soybeans, rice and wheat. The historical and cultural heritage of the Delta is thoroughly explored in exhibits at the Delta Cultural Center, a state museum in Helena.

Crowley's Ridge and the Grand Prairie are very different parts of the Delta. Though surrounded by the Delta's level expanse, the ridge rises as much as 200 feet above it, extends for 160 miles in Arkansas and is up to 10 miles across. A geological oddity, it was formed when the ancestral Mississippi and Ohio rivers eroded away the land on each side and deposits of wind-blown soils subsequently added height to the remaining ridge. Crowley's Ridge Parkway, Arkansas' first national scenic byway, travels the length of the ridge.

Located in east-central Arkansas, the Grand Prairie covers much of two counties and small portions of two more. Like other relatively small prairie areas found in Arkansas, the Grand Prairie was likely a remnant from an expansion of the Midwest prairies during a time of drier climate. Though trees regained their dominance in most of Arkansas when a wetter climate returned, a thick layer of clay largely impenetrable to both water and roots left only grasses and wildflowers thriving on the Grand Prairie.

That characteristic vegetation mostly disappeared, however, in the decades following 1904. That was the year W. H. Fuller grew on the prairie Arkansas' first commercial rice crop, single-handedly spawning the "rice fever" that led to Arkansas' emergence as the nation's leading rice-producing state. The prairie's human and natural history can be explored at the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie in Stuttgart.

The West Gulf Coastal Plain

A white-tailed deer lifts its tawny head from late afternoon grazing to watch a car motoring along a lengthy, straight-as-an-arrow stretch of U.S. 167. The rolling, forested land between Sheridan and Fordyce -- two of South Arkansas' many historic timber towns -- is typical terrain in that region of the state, nourishing wildlife and forest-product industries.

The West Gulf Coastal Plain covers the state's southern territory until it meets the Ouachitas to the north and the Delta to the north and east. Extending as well into northwest Louisiana, eastern Texas and southeast Oklahoma, it was covered by the Gulf of Mexico as recently as some 60 million years ago.

An important legacy of the coastal plain's geological history was tapped on January 10, 1921, about a mile west of El Dorado when a geyser of "black gold" began spewing far over the 112-foot-high derrick of Arkansas' first productive oil well.

The bonanza of wealth that followed eventually spread into 10 counties. The story of that "oil boom" is told in films, exhibits and displays of full-size derricks and other oilfield equipment at the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources at Smackover. Nearby, El Dorado's restored and bustling downtown still displays a lasting effect of the boom days with its impressive collection of 1920s and 1930s architecture.

Appreciating Arkansas

Appreciating the land of Arkansas takes time. Time to gaze from Mount Magazine's ramparts ... to relax in Hot Springs' remarkable waters ... to taste a native wine ... to canoe the Buffalo ... to witness the power of the Mississippi River from its Delta shoreline ... to sample life along the Crowley's Ridge byway ... to watch the harvesting of rice and observe the traffic on the state's namesake river ... to explore an "oil boom" downtown.

When one has done these things, what emerges is a keen appreciation of Arkansas' diversity -- and a deeper understanding of its connections to the larger American landscape.