Rich Mountain is the second highest point of the U.S. Interior Highlands and

Ouachita Mountains The Ouachita Mountains (), simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thru ...

, and in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 ...

; it is also the site of

Queen Wilhelmina State Park Queen Wilhelmina State Park is a unit of Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism in the Ouachita Mountains. The original "Castle in the Sky" lodge was built in 1898 on 2,681-foot Rich Mountain, in Polk County, Arkansas. The park is on Talimena ...

. Rich Mountain is a long, generally east–west-trending ridge composed of hard

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. It is located just outside of Mena, Arkansas and is intersected by the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. Atop its summit is the Rich Mountain Lookout Tower, which is approximately east-southeast of the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge. Arkansas State Highway 88 and

Oklahoma State Highway 1 State Highway 1, sometimes abbreviated as SH-1, is a highway maintained by the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It travels through the southeastern part of the state, nicknamed Little Dixie. SH-1 is signed east and west. Route description Madill to ...

, collectively known as the

Talimena Scenic Drive The Talimena Scenic Drive is a National Scenic Byway in Kiamichi Country, southeastern Oklahoma and extreme western Arkansas spanning a stretch of Oklahoma State Highway 1 (SH-1) and Arkansas Highway 88 (AR 88) from Talihina, Oklahoma, to ...

, traverse the entire top of Rich Mountain and provide excellent vistas of the surrounding

References

Ouachita Mountains Landforms of Le Flore County, Oklahoma Landforms of Polk County, Arkansas Mountains of Arkansas Mountains of Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-geo-stub