Crowley's Ridge

By Acadia Roher, student, Master's of Public History at UA at Little Rock

Visited on: 8/8/2019

A cloudy day meant no hope for sunset photos, I thought, but bright bands of pink rolled across the sky just as daylight began to fade into darkness atop Crowley’s Ridge. I grabbed the camera and tripod and stepped out into the dusk air, only to be swarmed by more mosquitoes than seemed physically possible. My desire to capture the dramatic sky over Lake Walcott was quickly outweighed by the onslaught. Clattering breathlessly back inside the rustic-style cabin, I wondered how the CCC workers of yore managed the heat, humidity, and critters of eastern Arkansas.

Lake Walcott did not exist in the 1930s and 40s when CCC Companies 1729, 2736, 3799-V, 4733, and 4747 were hard at work building infrastructure for Crowley’s Ridge State Park. The barracks, mess hall, and recreation areas where the men lived are gone, replaced by an empty field, but the structures they built throughout the rest of the park have been meticulously maintained and restored.

Since I was visiting on a weekday in the hottest month of the year, I had the park mostly to myself. The rangers at the visitor’s center were eager to share what they knew, and interpretive panels along the half-mile walking path around tiny Lake Ponder gave helpful historical context and architectural details for each CCC-related stop, including an iconic, two-story pavilion, stone arch bridge, amphitheater, swimming area, and boardwalk. I spent several hours wandering from place to place, marveling at the giant cross beams, solid stonework, and creative details like chandeliers made from cypress knees. In addition to the man-made wonders, I crossed paths with a ripening buckeye, examined mineral veins in boulders, and listened for the “plunk!” of frogs fleeing into the lake as I slowly advanced. Old photographs displayed at the visitors center and on outdoor signage showed CCC boys in the Cache River bottoms harvesting giant cypress trees, maneuvering giant blocks of stone, digging trenches, adzing logs, and dozens of other tasks that were necessary to build a park from the ground up.

Across Highway 168 from Lake Ponder, closer to where the CCC barracks would have been, is the group camp, which includes a cozy mess hall and a handful of CCC cabins. The majority are bunkhouses only available to those renting out the group camp, but a comfortable, two-bedroom cabin can be reserved on its own. No trace of the original CCC craftwork can be found inside the cabin since it was renovated a few years ago, but you can throw some food on the grill outside and bask in the abundance of tapered log exteriors on the surrounding cabins.

My last stop was down a trail through a pine forest (pine trees were planted by the CCC to replace native trees that were logged for the paper plant nearby). A comfort station mid-way down the trail was initially set up as an outhouse for hikers but is now maintained as a historic waypoint. It happens to be on the National Register of Historic Places, in addition to three other structures: the pavilion, bridge, and group camp dining hall. On a longer trip in a cooler season, I’d explore more of the trails in the park, many of which were built by the CCC.