Parker-Hickman Log Cabin & Farm: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

The Parker-Hickman Farmstead, situated along the south side of the Buffalo National River in northern Arkansas, is a 195-acre farm dating to the 1830s. The farmstead contains eight standing structures as well as fields, fence lines, farm feeders, roadways, and sites of former buildings. The first recorded use of the site was by the Parker family, who arrived from Tennessee in the mid-1830s after the Cherokees relinquished their lands in northwestern Arkansas. Successive land owners retained the original farm and added to it, enhancing both the land and the farm buildings. Initially a small property, the boundary expansions in 1847 and 1850 increased the holdings to eighty-four acres. Additional acreage was recorded in the 1870s, including the location of the standing structures. The final owners were the Hickman family, who farmed the property from 1912 until 1982 when it was acquired by the National Park Service (NPS) for Buffalo National River. The period of significance for the Parker-Hickman landscape begins in 1840 with the establishment of the farmstead, and continues to 1955 when the final contributing structures were added to the site. The farm residence, a two-story log structure, dates to the time of the original farm’s establishment. A log corn crib remains from the outbuildings added during the succeeding nineteenth-century period. The landscape contains an orchard, garden, a small field, and a stream. Other outbuildings and structures, built between the years 1912 and 1955, include a smokehouse, privy, barns, machine shed, chicken house, and a spring. The farm continued to operate continuously until 1982. Unlike most farms in the Ozarks, the landscape and its structures are remarkably intact and provide insight into a lengthy span of agricultural history in the region. Typical of farms in the Buffalo River, the farmstead conveys a feeling of enclosure and shelter, and it exemplifies adaptive use of topography and adjustment to the changing conditions of the agricultural economy. Clustered building arrangement was another common characteristic of Ozarks farms. It is significant for its rural vernacular architecture, as well, with structures representative of a range of time periods. Modern intrusions on the farm have been few. Electricity and telephone service arrived by the 1940s, and motor vehicles eventually began to replace wagons. The agricultural use of the farm reflected historical techniques until the late 1950s, when grasses for cattle began to replace traditional crops. Shed additions were added to the log residence in the nineteenth-century, but these show few signs of modern workmanship. Wooden roof shingles for all the buildings were still crafted by hand until the 1960s, when they were replaced by corrugated metal. The Parker-Hickman Farmstead retains substance and feeling that convey a detailed image of a nineteenth-century Ozark farmstead. The landscape and structures collectively portray developments in agricultural lifestyle and land use, and building construction illustrates traditional building styles of the Arkansas Ozarks spanning many years.

Parker-Hickman Log Cabin & Farm: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

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