Rush Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

Rush Historic District is a former zinc mining district located within the Buffalo National River park unit of northern Arkansas. The landscape includes valleys and bluffs carved into the forested terrain, roughly thirty miles upstream from the Buffalo’s confluence with the White River and near two of its tributaries. The mines were clustered along a band of zinc ore that ran along a hillside overlooking Rush Creek. Processing equipment was located near transportation routes, and housing and businesses were constructed in clusters. The period of significance, 1885-1931, includes the district’s productive zinc-mining era; beginning as a small and unorganized mining outpost, developing as a busy center of employment and production, and ending with its decline. Buildings and features of the landscape contribute to the material expression of the history of zinc mining and associated community life in the Arkansas Ozarks. The district consists of the extant remains of the region’s most bustling mining community, which extracted some of the nation’s purest zinc ore deposits during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following the 1880 discovery of ore in the area, individual mining operations expanded to a number of full-scale, industrial zinc works. The operations of the Morning Star Mine—the first in the district—were supported by a pumphouse, oil storage building, livery barn, hotel, company office, and manager’s house. Mills were introduced into the production process to separate the ore from surrounding rock. The immediate region attracted thousands of new residents during the First World War, as both the prices and production of zinc increased dramatically to meet the upsurge in military demand. At its peak (1911-1918), the population of “New Town” grew to between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals, outpacing the construction of housing. Before the war’s end, however, a national surplus of the mineral led to a rapid deflation in prices, and nearly all of the mines at Rush quickly closed. Morning Star Mine closed permanently in 1931, although informal mining continued in the area. Between 1958 to 1962, investors attempted to revive industrial mining at Rush with a new mill; that facility soon closed. When the National Park Service (NPS) purchased the area in 1972 for the Buffalo National River, only four families still resided in the area. Recent use of the area under NPS management has been primarily recreational and interpretive. The district is comprised of a range of property types spanning the period of significance. The structures, mines, and ruins at Rush are the last visible remains of zinc mining activity in the Ozarks. Residences are vernacular, wood-frame buildings of simple construction; nearly all residences were built around 1899 and feature pier foundations and open front porches. A standing general store is the remaining extant commercial building. An early stone smelter remains, and mine entrances are also visible. The locations of processing mills are marked by series of pyramidal concrete piers. The landscape at Rush is characterized by its collection of ruins, showing the loss of buildings to dismantling or arson over the past eighty years. Other features include grave markers, flowerbeds, and retaining walls. The district exists today in much the same environment and setting as it did during its period of historic significance. Still isolated, many of the structures have fallen to ruin. However, spatial integrity is retained, and the feeling of the town and mines continue to convey a sense of the area’s development and subsequent decline. Despite particular losses, the deteriorated state even aids in emphasizing the boom-and-bust history of the district during over its history.

Rush Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Buffalo National River, National Park Service

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