Mount Magazine State Park is a 2,234-acre park located in

Logan County, Arkansas Logan County (formerly Sarber County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,353. Its two county seats are Booneville and Paris. History The Arkansas General Assembly defined the stat ...

. Inhabited since the 1850s,

Mount Magazine Mount Magazine, officially named Magazine Mountain, is the highest point of the U.S. Interior Highlands and the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the site of Mount Magazine State Park. It is a flat-topped mountain or mesa capped by hard rock and r ...

first became part of the

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

in 1938, was re-designated as part of the

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 ...

in 1941, and became a state park after a 22-year conversion process from the U.S. Forest Service to the

Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism The Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism (ADPHT) is an executive department of the government of the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is responsible for promoting, protecting, interpreting, and managing the state's natural and cultural ...

. Mount Magazine State Park is the highest park 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 O ...

. The park contains Mossback Ridge, including the peak of Mount Magazine (called Signal Hill) which contains The Lodge at Mount Magazine, cabins, trails, and a

hang gliding Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

area.

History

Native Americans inhabited the mountain seasonally, often opting to permanently settle in the

Arkansas River Valley The Arkansas River Valley (usually shortened to River Valley) is a region in Arkansas defined by the Arkansas River in the western part of the state. Generally defined as the area between the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, the River Valley is cha ...

surrounding the ridge. The

Homestead Act of 1862 The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...

opened the mountain to settlers who began to populate the area, and the Summer Home School was opened in the late 1800s. The nearby town of Magazine was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted in 1900. The Great Depression forced many settlers off the mountain, with the

Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...

eventually purchasing all private property on the mountain in 1934. In 1938, Franklin Roosevelt reallocated the land to the U.S. Forest Service and the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) began construction on a 27-room lodge the following year. In 1941, the area became a part of the Ozark National Forest, changing from the Ouachita National Forest designation received in 1938. The WPA and

Civil Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

(CCC) also constructed a road to the mountain (which would become the Mount Magazine Scenic Byway), trails, two dams which created Cove Lake and Spring Lake, and an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

. In 1971, the Mount Magazine Lodge burned and was a total loss. After the lodge burned, tourism declined until new plans for a state park atop Mount Magazine came in the 1980s. The Arkansas Act 884 of 1983 allowed Arkansas State Parks to begin the process of a state park on Arkansas's highest point, and a partnership with the

USDA Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

allowed the park to open in 1998 as Mount Magazine State Park.

Recreation

The park offers a visitors center with interactive exhibits and gift shop shortly after entering the park. Campers can choose from two class AAA campsites and 16 class AA tent-only campsites at Cameron Bluff Campground. Groups can rent the Greenfield Picnic Area, which is a large pavilion, or utilize the grills and tables at the Benefield, Brown Springs, or Cameron Bluff picnic areas for free. Hiking and horseback riding trails meander throughout the wooded areas of the park. Cycling is allowed throughout the park, and all paved routes feature bike lanes. Bike trails include the Huckleberry Mountain Horse Trail and the Will Apple's Road Trail. Blue Mountain Lake, Cove Lake, and Spring Lake all offer

bream Bream ( ) are species of freshwater and marine fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Acanthopagrus'', ''Argyrops'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', ''Etelis'', '' L ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive ...

and

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

in addition to free swimming. Cedar Piney Lake is also available for fishing but not swimming. There also exist many opportunities for ATV riding, backpacking, hang gliding, mountain biking,

rappelling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling the person descending controls their own movement down the rope, in contrast to low ...

, and rock climbing within the park. The park hosts the annual Mount Magazine International Butterfly Festival, and is a haven for many rare species of butterflies in Arkansas due to the special blend of altitude and temperature available. The state butterfly, the

Diana fritillary The Diana fritillary (''Speyeria diana'') is a fritillary butterfly found in several wooded areas in southern and eastern North America (primarily in the Arkansas River valley, several counties in South Carolina, spots along the Appalachian mou ...

, is found almost exclusively in the Arkansas River Valley and the Petit Jean River Valley. The mountain is also home to

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

whitetail deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, bobcat, and coyote as well as other species.

The Lodge at Mount Magazine

In 2006, the multimillion-dollar Lodge at Mount Magazine and 13 cliffside cabins were opened. The rustic-style lodge offers 60 guest rooms, a grand lobby, a conference center, a business center, an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, a gift shop, and panoramic views from every guest room. The Skycrest Restaurant offers traditional

Southern cuisine The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several regions, including Tidewater, Appalachian, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, and Floribbean cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread t ...

, a two-story fireplace, and a view of the Petit Jean River Valley and distant Blue Mountain Lake.

References

External links

Mount Magazine State Park - The Lodge at Mount Magazine
{{authority control State parks of Arkansas State parks of the U.S. Interior Highlands Protected areas of Logan County, Arkansas Protected areas established in 1998 Ozark–St. Francis National Forest Civilian Conservation Corps in Arkansas Works Progress Administration in Arkansas 1998 establishments in Arkansas

History

Recreation

The Lodge at Mount Magazine

See also

References

External links