Buffalo River State Park Historic District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

Rusch, Jonathon

Located in the northeast section of Buffalo National River, the former Buffalo River State Park is a heavily forested area occupying over 1,700 acres of varied terrain north of the Buffalo River, which courses through the Ozark highland region of north‑central Arkansas. The park is situated at the southern border of Marion County, approximately fifteen miles southeast of Yellville; its entrance road is Arkansas Highway 268, which branches from Arkansas Highway 14 outside of the park’s western boundary. The area of the park encompasses a prominent ridge and its surrounding environment, including the slope that cascades to meet the river at the bend now known as Buffalo Point. The landscape contains a National Register‑listed historic district as well as campgrounds and other day use areas, including hiking trails, river access points, sites of prehistoric and historic interest, and picnicking areas. The landscape is significant at the state level under National Register Criterion A, for its relationship to public works projects and tourist recreation encouraged by the federal government in the 1930s, and then continued by the Arkansas State Parks Commission until 1972; and under Criterion C, for its broad architectural and landscape planning that connected the design and materials of its rustic buildings to the context of the surrounding natural environment. The historic district's period of significance is 1938 to 1972, the time during which the landscape was planned, developed, and operated as an Arkansas state park, before it was acquired by the National Park Service (NPS) and incorporated into Buffalo National River. The core of the park—containing the park lodge, picnic pavilion, six cabins, pumphouse ruin, a vehicular access road, water system, and numerous stone landscape features that are listed or eligible within the National Register historic district—was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The NPS assisted with the park’s master plan, which sited its programmatic areas, building sites, and transportation corridors. The architecture of the structures from this time follows the rustic style favored by the CCC throughout the United States. The original buildings are simple in design: nearly all are rectangular in plan and side‑gabled, featuring shed‑roof porches and prominent stone chimneys. (The final cabin built by the CCC is cross‑gabled, on a modified ‘L’ plan.) They are heavily massed and appear organic to the surrounding natural environment: their builders took advantage of local materials to enclose the buildings in envelopes of roughly cut clapboard siding and hewn stone. Other landscape features placed by the CCC throughout the park are similarly rustic, including picnic fireplaces, culverts, and mortared and dry stone walls along vehicular roads. The limestone quarry used by company members is located below the main entrance road and is accessible by a trail loop, which also reaches a rock shelter used by prehistoric Native Americans, a zinc mine, and several geological features. Following World War II, the Arkansas State Parks Commission further developed the park with additional buildings and recreation areas in accordance with the broad guidelines of the original master plan. In the early 1960s, in response to increased visitor demand, the park agency built a ranger station located near the park entrance, a restaurant overlooking the river, and a modern campground that included five camping loops, picnic pavilions, and an amphitheater. Additionally, four duplex cabins were constructed on the ridge road east of the original CCC cabins, where the master plan originally had sited cabins that were never realized. While the minimalist structures of this period are distinguished aesthetically from those constructed by the CCC, the park’s postwar developments contribute to its significant landscape.

Buffalo River State Park Historic District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

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