Albert Pike Recreation Area is a

recreational area A recreation area is a type of protected area designated in some jurisdictions. By country Canada In the province of British Columbia, recreation areas are lands set aside for recreational use. These lands are also being evaluated to determine w ...

located in the

Ouachita National Forest The Ouachita National Forest is a vast congressionally-designated United States National Forest, National Forest that lies in the western portion of Arkansas and portions of extreme-eastern Oklahoma, USA. History The Ouachita National Forest is t ...

about 6 miles north of

Langley, Arkansas Langley (also known as Lindon) is an unincorporated community in Pike County, Arkansas, United States. It is about 42 miles southeast of Mena, Arkansas, and is served by Arkansas Highway 84 Arkansas Highway 84 (AR 84, Hwy. 84) is a ...

, in southern Montgomery County, featuring swimming and camping areas on the Little Missouri River.

Flooding tragedy

During the night of June 10–11, 2010 a flash flood along Little Missouri River killed 20 people in the campgrounds of the Albert Pike Recreation Area. In a matter of less than four hours water rose from three feet to over twenty-three feet. Since that time the U.S. Forest Service has closed the site for further evaluation. On July 20, 2018, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Dis ...

upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against the federal government relating to this incident, on the grounds that the suit was barred by the

Federal Tort Claims Act The Federal Tort Claims Act (August 2, 1946, ch.646, Title IV, 28 U.S.C. Part VI, Chapter 171and ) ("FTCA") is a 1946 federal statute that permits private parties to sue the United States in a federal court for most torts committed by person ...

. To wit, the Court ruled that the government could not be considered

negligent Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...

in allowing visitors to camp overnight on a previously-known 100-year

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

(occupied by Loop D, the site of most of the deaths), since "camping within a 100-year floodplain is not an uncommon recreational activity" and the June 10–11 flood was unquestionably a catastrophic 500-year flood event that would have posed a "ultra-hazardous condition" regardless of any attempts to mitigate or warn against the known 100-year flood risk at Loop D.Court document
uscourts.gov

References

External links

* * * Parks in Arkansas Protected areas of Montgomery County, Arkansas Little Missouri River (Arkansas) {{Arkansas-protected-area-stub