Collier Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

The Collier Homestead cultural landscape is an 11.9-acre property south of the Buffalo River. It is located in the Middle River section of the Buffalo National River park unit in northern Arkansas, approximately 1.5 miles south of the Tyler Bend Visitor Center. The Buffalo River traverses a rural landscape, characterized by sparse population and clusters of development. The extremes of topography made access to the region and travel within it difficult during the initial periods of settlement. A regional character developed out of this isolation and limited outsider influence, and these conditions lent themselves to a culture of self-sufficiency and subsistence family farming. The homesteaders in this region were as adaptable as they were self-sufficient, altering food sources and use in accordance with crop success and using what small profit could be earned to purchase essentials like coffee, sugar, and horseshoes. Fertile acreage along creeks and rivers were settled first, while the less desirable land lay unclaimed on slopes and atop ridges. The Collier family was among the last of the 20th century settlers to stake a claim on these hilltop remnants in the early 1930s. The period of significance for the Collier Homestead cultural landscape begins in 1931 when the family selected the tract and began the clearing and building of farm structures, and it ends with the sale of the homestead in 1964. Arriving after a week-long journey from Kentucky with only fifteen cents, Solomon “Sod” Collier secured a forty-acre tract of land at Tyler Bend and began making the improvements required to obtain a homestead patent. By 1937, the family had improved the land enough to receive the patent for the acreage, among the last settlers along the Buffalo River to acquire land under the 1862 Homestead Act. This Act provided free land to homesteaders who lived and worked on a piece of property for a period of five years. The Colliers’ arrival coincided with a faltering national economy, encouraging families to seek property in the Ozarks. The site is representative of the continuing settlement of the rural Buffalo River valley into the early twentieth century. The landscape illustrates the vernacular architecture and subsistence lifestyle that was unique to the isolation and rugged topography of the Ozarks. The Collier Homestead consisted of a house, barn, smokehouse, well, a plot for gardening, and domestic animals. The site was laid out in in level clearing on a wooded ridge. A storage shed served as the family’s first shelter while the house took shape. Land was cultivated and fenced, and outbuildings were constructed. A paling fence enclosed the large yard and its structures, erected to keep livestock out of the yard and garden. This followed the farm tradition seen in more moderate climates in which livestock were free to roam and feed in the forest. Portions of the original paling fence were rebuilt by the NPS ca. 1980 in the manner of original construction using hand-hewn materials. A log barn is situated towards the slope of the ridge and outside the domestic fenced area, accessed by a trail. Other trails continue to overlooks. There is only one extant field dating to the period of use. It is maintained by the Park Service as a mowed area surrounded by woods. Ida Mae Collier propagated a variety of plants on the property for ornamentation, medicinal purposes, and subsistence, although these are not presently maintained. The dwelling and outbuildings remain in good condition, largely unaltered from the time of construction. Even though most of the fields used by the Colliers are no longer extant and views may be obscured by vegetation, the natural features, land use, positioning, and structures all contribute to the integrity of the cultural landscape and to the historical significance of the homestead

Collier Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

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