Crowley's Ridge State Park

Transcribed by : Tina Easley

07/07/2004

The photos below was donated by Crowley's Ridge State Park

CCC Camp it was located by the lake where the field is today.

If anyone knows of a better photo of the camp please contact me.

Double Click images for larger veiw.

This recreational retreat lies atop the forested hills in northeast Arkansas called Crowley's Ridge. The park occupies the former homestead of Benjamin Crowley whose family first settled this area.

Cozy log and stone structures constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s set the mood for this park's rustic warmth.

Shiloh Cemetery directly behind the CCC Pavilion , contains burials from the 1830s to the 1870s. There are few stones and its not known exactly where individuals are buried . other than Benjamin Crowley , whose grave is marked by a monument . CCC enrollees compiled a partial list of the interred from descendants of the Crowley family and other settlers , with burial dates and beginning around 1857.

Crowley's Ridge has long fascinated people traveling across the flat terrain of the Delta region . The most prominent relief in a long journey across the rich agricultural lands , the ridge stands as a silent sentinel over the entire eastern one-third of Arkansas . From the earliest inhabitants to modern man , the ridge has attracted people for its natural beauty and intrigued them by its mysterious existence.

Many local legends have surfaced as to the origin of the ridge . Stories of earthquakes , violent upheavals , mound building Native Americans and even the action of Noah's Ark during the Great Flood have been handed down through generations to explain this puzzing phenomenon. However , the ridge was not formed by any of these methods , but exists instead , as the resdual product of long-continued erosion of the surrounding countryside by the powerful forces of rivers and streams .

Evidence indicates that the Paleo-Indians were inhabiting Crowley's Ridge as early as 10,000 years ago. The time of greatest Indian activity and population in the area was during the Mississippi Era (AD 800-1650). These people developed a way of life based solidly on agriculture and settled primarily in the Delta surrounding the ridge . Mississippians built heavily fortifified towns and developed to high levels the arts of pottery making, shell engraving , weaving , sculpting and wood carving . Evidence indicates that one of the more important group of Mississippians were the people of the Province of Casqui. Their capitol was located along the St. Francis River in what is now Parkin Archeological State Park.

Evidence also indicates the Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto visted them in the summer of 1541 . Other explorers followed at intervals , but the first European settlers did not arrive until the 1790s.

The rather unusual name for the ridge originated from the head of an influential pioneer family. Benjamin Crowley settled in what is now Crowley's Ridge State Park in 1825 . He had originally received a land grant near New Madrid , Missouri for his services in the war of 1812. However , upon hearing the reports of a series of very powerful earthquakes known as the New Madrid Quakes that occurred in 1811-1812 , he settled instead on the ridge near Walcott.