Crowley's Ridge (also Crowleys Ridge) is a geological formation that rises 250 to above the

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the sma ...

of the

Mississippi embayment The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its conflu ...

in a line from southeastern

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

near

Helena, Arkansas Helena is the eastern portion of Helena–West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phillips, an early settler of Phillips County and the n ...

. It is the most prominent feature in the

Mississippi Alluvial Plain The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is an alluvial plain created by the Mississippi River on which lie parts of seven U.S. states, from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois (Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Lou ...

between

Cape Girardeau, Missouri Cape Girardeau ( , french: Cap-Girardeau ; colloquially referred to as "Cape") is a city in Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 census, the population was 39,540. The city is one of two principal citie ...

, and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. This narrow rolling hill region rising above the flat plain is the sixth, and smallest, natural division of the state of

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 ...

. The southern part is protected within

Ozark–St. Francis National Forest The Ozark – St. Francis National Forest is a United States National Forest that is located in the U.S. state, state of Arkansas. It is composed of two separate forests, Ozark National Forest in the Ozark Mountains; and St. Francis National Fore ...

. Most of the major cities of the

Arkansas Delta The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of ''The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox'', says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep ...

region lie along Crowley's Ridge. It was named after

Benjamin Crowley Benjamin Crowley ( – 1842) was a 19th-century American pioneer and the namesake of Crowley's Ridge. Early life and westward migration Crowley was born in Halifax County, Virginia, the son of Benjamin Crowley and Sarah Strong. By 1787, he was li ...

, known as the first American settler to reach the area, sometime around 1820. The

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Battle of Chalk Bluff was fought on Crowley's Ridge on May 1–2, 1863.

Composition and origin

The ridge is primarily composed of the windblown glacially derived sediment known as

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...

. It contrasts greatly with the flat table land around it and with the black soil that makes up the delta. The ridge varies from half a mile to wide and reaches an elevation of near its northern extremity. The highest point on the ridge in Arkansas is "Legacy Mountain" at the Craighead County solid waste site south of Jonesboro. Prevailing winds blow dust into the river fogs. The fog wetted dust tends to fall and make loess deposits on the downwind sides of rivers, such as the east and north sides of the Mississippi River, as well as the east side of the Black River. These loess deposits are a classic example of periglacial

. Crowley's Ridge is a natural loess accumulation point. A comparable example of this type of deposit is the

Loess Hills The Loess Hills are a formation of wind-deposited loess soil in the westernmost parts of Iowa and Missouri, and the easternmost parts of Nebraska and Kansas, along the Missouri River. Geology The Loess (, , or ) Hills are generally located bet ...

in northwestern Missouri and western Iowa. At one time, the ridge was thought to have been an island between the

and

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

that was isolated as a long low hilly ridge after the rivers changed course millions of years ago. Recent seismic evidence, however, questions the fluvial origin by focusing on uplift along ridge bounding faults. There is evidence that the area's elevation has increased over the years, suggesting that uplift is still taking place. This alternative explanation posits a link between the ridge and the nearby

New Madrid Seismic Zone The New Madrid Seismic Zone (), sometimes called the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) in the Southern and Midwestern United States, stretching t ...

.Abstract
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Soils and vegetation

The flora and fauna of the ridge seem more closely related to the

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

hills to the east than to the

Ozark Mountains 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 ...

to the west. This unique habitat has been protected by the establishment of several state and city parks, the

St. Francis National Forest ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

, recreational lakes, and in 1997 a

national scenic byway A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...

, the

Crowley's Ridge Parkway Crowley's Ridge Parkway is a National Scenic Byway in northeast Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel along Crowley's Ridge in the United States. Motorists can access the parkway from US Route 49 (US 49) at its southern terminus near the Hele ...

. The soils in this area are moderately fertile and sometimes rich. The land is moderately rugged, discouraging row-crop agriculture. These soils are easily eroded. There is some commercial agriculture in the

al plains area of the ridge. The ridge is surrounded by the fertile lands of the delta region. The vegetation is predominantly

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...

forests, similar to vegetation found in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. Examples are the

tulip tree ''Liriodendron'' () is a genus of two species of characteristically large trees, deciduous over most of their populations, in the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae). These trees are widely known by the common name tulip tree or tuliptree for their ...

(or yellow poplar) and the

American beech ''Fagus grandifolia'', the American beech or North American beech, is a species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and extreme southeast of Canada. Description ''Fagus grandifolia'' is a large deciduous tree growing to tall, w ...

. Ferns and flowers abound here, including the

American bellflower ''Campanula americana'', the American bellflower, or tall bellflower, is a bellflower native to eastern North America. Tall bellflowers can be annual or biennial with a varying life-history with seeds germinating in the fall producing annual pl ...

, fire pink,

butterfly weed ''Asclepias tuberosa'', commonly known as butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and southwestern North America. It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterfly, butterflies that are attracted to the plant by ...

cardinal flower ''Lobelia cardinalis'', the cardinal flower ( syn. ''L. fulgens''), is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae native to the Americas, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States ...

, blue lobelia,

phlox ''Phlox'' (; Greek φλόξ "flame"; plural "phlox" or "phloxes", Greek φλόγες ''phlóges'') is a genus of 67 species of perennial and annual plants in the family Polemoniaceae. They are found mostly in North America (one in Siberia) in di ...

verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas a ...

, wild hydrangea,

hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...

aster Aster or ASTER may refer to: Biology * ''Aster'' (genus), a genus of flowering plants ** List of ''Aster'' synonyms, other genera formerly included in ''Aster'' and still called asters in English * Aster (cell biology), a cellular structure shap ...

, and yellow jasmine. The low-lying areas around the ridge were once much

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

ier, and the ridge provided a natural and more healthful place for settlers to establish homes. The ridge became a natural north-south communications link for the region, since travel along the ridge was much easier than through the swampy lowlands.

Fossils

The region adjacent to the ridge is covered with thick deltaic soils, and few

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s are found except in gravel pits. These pits sometimes reveal the teeth of large mastodons, mammoths and horses, which roamed the continent as recently as 10,000 years ago. Crowley's Ridge contains important exposures of fossiliferous Tertiary sediments and contains the only documented

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

exposures in the state. A

silicified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...

conifer stump weighing several tons was unearthed near Wittsburg, and many more were found around

Piggott Pigot, Pigott or Piggott may refer to: People * Pigot (surname), including a list of people with this name * Pigott (surname), including a list of people with the surname Pigott or Piggott Places * Piggott, Arkansas, United States, a city * ...

Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

bones were found within the city limits of

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * ...

at the southern end of the ridge. Near

Forrest City Forrest City is a city in St. Francis County, Arkansas, St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States, and the county seat. It was named for General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who used the location as a campsite for a construction crew completing a rail ...

, in the bed of Crow Creek, a deposit of

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

shells estimated to be nearly 7,000,000 cubic yards in size was discovered.

Namesake

Crowleys Ridge State Park Shiloh Cemetery Paragould AR 05

Crowley's Ridge is named after

(1758–1842), the first American settler of the Ridge near

Paragould, Arkansas Paragould is the county seat of Greene County, and the 19th-largest city in Arkansas, in the United States. The city is located in northeastern Arkansas on the eastern edge of Crowley's Ridge, a geologic anomaly contained within the Arkansas delta ...

. Crowley is buried in the Shiloh Cemetery in

Greene County, Arkansas Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 42,090. The county seat is Paragould, which sits atop Crowley's Ridge. Greene County is included in Jonesboro–Paragould Combined Stat ...

, and a monument marks the spot. The cemetery is part of

Crowley's Ridge State Park Crowley's Ridge State Park is a Arkansas state park in Greene County, Arkansas in the United States atop Crowley's Ridge. Located on the former homesite of pioneer Benjamin Crowley, the park contains many excellent examples of the work done by ...

. Next to Crowley's grave, other early settlers of the ridge are buried in unmarked graves.

Crowley's Ridge Nature Center

The Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center in

Jonesboro, Arkansas Jonesboro is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 78,576 and is the f ...

features self-guided exhibits about area's

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

and natural history and wildlife of Crowley’s Ridge. Operated by the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission (AGFC) and opened in 2004, the Center includes an exhibit area, discovery room, observation tower, meeting rooms, auditorium, and gift shop. Outside there are trails through wetlands, forest and prairie, and a 1/4 mile universally accessible trail and boardwalk around a pond. The Center offers many activities and nature education programs. It is named after Forrest L. Wood, a former commissioner and supporter of the AGFC.

References

External links

Semo.edu: Crowley's Ridge
*

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

GNIS webpage—
Arkansas State Parks: official Crowley's Ridge State Park website

Encyclopedia of Arkansas history and culture.net: Crowley's Ridge State Park St. Francis National Forest at Crowley's Ridge
— ''at southernmost end of ridge, adjacent to Mississippi River''.
Crowley's Ridge Nature Center
{{Coord, 36.142, N, 90.575, W, display=title Ridges of Arkansas Mississippi embayment U.S. Interior Highlands Landforms of Clay County, Arkansas Landforms of Craighead County, Arkansas Landforms of Cross County, Arkansas Landforms of Greene County, Arkansas Landforms of Lee County, Arkansas Landforms of Phillips County, Arkansas Landforms of Poinsett County, Arkansas Ozark–St. Francis National Forest Geology of Arkansas Regions of Arkansas Geology of Missouri