Marble Falls (known as Marble City from 1840 to 1883, Willcockson from 1883 to 1934, and Dogpatch from 1966 to 1997) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Newton County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It lies along Arkansas's National Scenic 7 Byway between Harrison and

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

. The Marble Falls Post Office is located in the parking lot of the now-defunct theme park called

Dogpatch USA Dogpatch USA was a theme park located in northwest Arkansas along Arkansas State Highway 7, State Highway 7 between the cities of Harrison, Arkansas, Harrison and Jasper, Arkansas, Jasper, an area known today as Marble Falls, Arkansas, Marble ...

. For a time, the town was known as Dogpatch to promote the theme park. Marble Falls is part of the Harrison Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Settlement

A Choctaw Indian named Ah-Che-To-Mah was the first settler known to have acquired title to land in the vicinity of Marble Falls. The waterfall once supplied power for a flour mill, cotton gin, and sawmill. Peter Beller built the original water-powered grist mill there, and this mill was later rebuilt and remodeled by several different owners.

Marble City, Arkansas (1840 to 1883)

The community was originally named Marble City, after the marble that was quarried nearby. Marble City became known as a health resort in the 1880s, through the advertisements of businessmen such as Dr. Silas Scruggs Stacey, proprietor of the Stacey family store and provider of Dr. S. S. Staceys Sulpher Mountain Bitters (which sold briskly for $1 per bottle). In 1836, William Harp and his brothers, Elijah and Samuel, with Peter Bellah quarried a large block of marble at Marble City by drilling and wedging. They put the marble on a log wagon and, with ten yokes of oxen to pull it, moved it 60 miles across the Boston Mountains to the Arkansas River near Clarksville, where it was shipped to Washington, D.C. The block of marble (with" Arkansas" chiseled on it), along with other memorial stones, is located on the 30-foot level of the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States, victorious commander-in-chief of the Continen ...

Willcockson, Arkansas (1883–1934)

The first post office was established on September 24, 1883, and the first postmaster, Mander Willcockson, officially renamed the community Willcockson. On October 29, 1917, Ida T. Chesbro was appointed the U.S. Postmaster of Willcockson. Absalom C. Phillips, a local preacher, added the cotton gin in 1890. After 1900, the town began to fade away, and the mills and gin were destroyed sometime in the early 1900s. By 1915, many began to leave the area due to economic depression.

Marble Falls, Arkansas (1934–1966 and 1997 to present)

Albert Raney, Sr., who became postmaster in 1934, had the official name changed to Marble Falls.Lackey, Walter F. ''History of Newton County, Arkansas'', Point Lookout, MO: S of O Press, 1950.

Dogpatch, Arkansas (1966–1997)

When the Raney property was purchased in 1966 by the developers of

, Governor

Orval Faubus Orval Eugene Faubus ( ; January 7, 1910 – December 14, 1994) was an American politician who served as the List of governors of Arkansas, 36th Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, as a member of the Democratic Party (United States), D ...

and some developers had the area's postal designation changed to Dogpatch, and it would appear that way on highway maps. The theme park closed in 1993, and in 1997 the citizens of the area voted unanimously to change the postal designation back to Marble Falls, the name it has today.

Skiing (1972–1980s)

The only lift-serviced skiing ever in Arkansas was offered at the Marble Falls Resort beginning circa 1972 and lasting until the 1980s.

External links

Newton County Historical Society

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Arkansas Unincorporated communities in Newton County, Arkansas Harrison, Arkansas micropolitan area Populated places established in 1840