The Boston Mountains Scenic Loop is one of ten

Arkansas Scenic Byways __NOTOC__ The Arkansas Scenic Byways Program is a list of highways, mainly state highways, that have been designated by the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT) as scenic highways. The Arkansas General Assembly designates routes for scenic ...

. There are two different paths that constitute the loop,

Interstate 49 Interstate 49 (I-49) is a north–south Interstate Highway that exists in multiple segments: the original portion entirely within the state of Louisiana with an additional signed portion extending from I-220 in Shreveport to the Arkansas s ...

and

U.S. Route 71 U.S. Route 71 or U.S. Highway 71 (US 71) is a major north–south United States highway that extends for over 1500 miles (2500 km) in the central United States. This original 1926 route has remained largely unchanged by encroaching Interstat ...

Route description

I-49

The route runs through the

Boston Mountains The Boston Mountains is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Part of the Ozarks, the Boston Mountains are a deeply dissected plateau. The ecoregion is steeper ...

(a subsection of

The Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portio ...

) in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

for in

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

and Washington Counties.Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department
AHTD Crawford County map
Retrieved on June 26, 2010.Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department
AHTD Washington County map
Retrieved on June 26, 2010. The route begins at

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

and runs north to Fayetteville. The route includes the

Bobby Hopper Tunnel The Bobby Hopper Tunnel is a highway tunnel on Interstate 49 (I-49) in Arkansas, just north of the Crawford—Washington county line. It opened in 1999 to four lanes of traffic. No toll is charged. Description The tunnel's twin bores are each lon ...

, the only road tunnel in Arkansas. This portion of I-49 was completed in 1999, when it was part of I-540, to bypass the aging US 71.

US 71

Also part of the loop is of US 71 between

and Fayetteville."Boston Mountains Scenic Loop/U.S. 71 and I-49." Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism
Drive Profile.
Retrieved June 26, 2010. The US 71 segment allows travelers to go at their own pace through the area. There are many areas and a number of small towns to stop and explore along the US 71 segment as opposed to the bustling interstate segment that bypasses these areas and towns.

Points of interest

* Devil's Den State Park * Beaver Lake *

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

* Lake Fort Smith State Park *

Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park The Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park is an Arkansas state park located in Prairie Grove. It commemorates the Battle of Prairie Grove, fought December 7, 1862, during the American Civil War. The battle secured northwestern Arkansas for t ...

Fort Smith National Historic Site Fort Smith National Historic Site is a National Historic Site located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, along the Arkansas River. The first fort at this site was established by the United States in 1817, before this area was established as part of Indi ...

Van Buren Historic District The Van Buren Historic District encompasses eight blocks of historic buildings along Main Street in Van Buren, Arkansas. Many of the structures are pre-1920 Victorian and Italianate buildings closely related to the history of commerce in the ci ...

* Ozark Highlands Trail *

Pea Ridge National Military Park Pea Ridge National Military Park is a United States National Military Park located in northwest Arkansas near the Missouri border. The park protects the site of the Battle of Pea Ridge, fought March 7 and 8, 1862. The battle was a victory for th ...

Buffalo National River The Buffalo River, located in Northern Arkansas, was the first List of areas in the United States National Park System#National rivers and national wild and scenic rivers, National River to be designated in the United States. The Buffalo River i ...

Ozark National Forest The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...

*White Rock Mountain Recreation Area *Lake Wedington Recreation Area *

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

History

The first routes through the area were Native American Trails, later formalized into the Ozark Highlands Trails. These rough roads became obsolete with the establishment of the

, a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

route from

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

that traversed the Boston Mountains in Northwest Arkansas. This route has been preserved in part as

Arkansas Highway 265 Highway 265 (AR 265, Ark. 265, Hwy. 265, and the Dick Trammel Highway) is a designation for three state highways in Northwest Arkansas. The southern segment of runs from Highway 170 near Strickler north to I-49/US 71/ Highway 112 in s ...

and is well marked throughout Fayetteville and other Northwest Arkansas cities. US 71 replaced the stagecoach route when the

United States Numbered Highways The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these hi ...

system came to

in 1926. U.S. Route 71 in conjunction with

Arkansas Highway 23 Arkansas Highway 23 is a north–south state highway in north Arkansas. The route runs from US 71 near Elm Park north to the Missouri state line through Ozark and Eureka Springs. Between AR 16 at Brashears and Interstate 40 north of Ozark (), ...

served the Northwest Arkansas area for many years, but as the area grew the routes became congested. The need for a

limited-access A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

highway became apparent, and Interstate 49 was completed through the area by 1999.

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=title,inline
Boston Mountains Scenic Loop on Arkansashighways.com
Arkansas Scenic Byways Transportation in Washington County, Arkansas Transportation in Crawford County, Arkansas Interstate 49 U.S. Route 71