Athens is an unincorporated community in the northeastern corner of Howard County, Arkansas, United States. [1] It is located at the junction of Arkansas Highways 84 and 246.
Athens includes (or is the nearest community to) a number of historic places, including the following ones which are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places: [2]
Hot Spring County is located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,040. The county seat is Malvern. Established on November 2, 1829, in the Arkansas Territory from a part of Clark County; it was named after the hot springs at Hot Springs, Arkansas, which were formerly in the county.
Hot Springs is a resort city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs for which the city is named. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 37,930, making it the 11th most populous city in Arkansas.
Copan is a town in Washington County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 733 at the 2010 census, a decline of 7.9 percent from the figure of 796 recorded in 2000.
The Ouachita National Forest is a vast congressionally-designated National Forest that lies in the western portion of Arkansas and portions of extreme-eastern Oklahoma, USA.
The Ouachita Mountains, simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt, one of the important orogenic belts of North America. The Ouachitas continue in the subsurface to the northeast, where they make a poorly understood connection with the Appalachians and to the southwest, where they join with the Marathon uplift area of West Texas. Together with the Ozark Plateaus, the Ouachitas form the U.S. Interior Highlands. The highest natural point is Mount Magazine at 2,753 feet (839 m).
Kisatchie National Forest, the only National forest in Louisiana, United States, is located in the forested piney hills and hardwood bottoms of seven central and northern parishes. It is part of the Cenozoic uplands and has large areas of longleaf pine forests. It is one of the largest pieces of natural landscape in Louisiana, with some 604,000 acres (2,440 km2) of public land, more than half of which is vital longleaf pine and flatwoods vegetation. These support many rare plant and animal species. There are also rare habitats, such as hillside seepage bogs and calcareous prairies. The forest also contains and provides a buffer for the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness, a nationally designated wilderness area that contributes to protecting biodiversity of the coastal plain region of the United States.
Lake Ouachita is a reservoir created by the damming of the Ouachita River by Blakely Mountain Dam.
Lake Dardanelle is a major reservoir on the Arkansas River in Arkansas, USA. and is an integral part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS), which allows barge transportation from the Mississippi River to the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in northeastern Oklahoma. MKARNS went into service along its full length in 1971.
DeGray Lake Resort State Park is a 984-acre (398 ha) Arkansas state park in Clark and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas in the United States. Situated in the Ouachita Mountains, the park features the 13,800-acre (5,600 ha) DeGray Lake, the park features a championship rated 18 hole golf course and Arkansas's only state park resort. The United States Army Corps of Engineers began constructing DeGray Dam on the Caddo River in 1963, and support for a state park began growing shortly after. The park was created in 1974, and the resort and golf course were added by 1975.
Arkansas Highway 24 is the designation of two separate state highways in southwest and south central Arkansas. The two sections were formerly connected, but a middle segment of 53 miles (85 km) between Lockesburg and Prescott was redesignated as U.S. Route 371 in 1994.
The geography of Arkansas varies widely. The state is covered by mountains, river valleys, forests, lakes, and bayous in addition to the cities of Arkansas. Hot Springs National Park features bubbling springs of hot water, formerly sought across the country for their healing properties. Crowley's Ridge is a geological anomaly rising above the surrounding lowlands of the Mississippi embayment.
Winthrop Rockefeller Lake is an impounded section of the Arkansas River, named for Governor Winthrop A. Rockefeller (1912–1973). It extends almost 30 miles (50 km) along the river, from the Arthur V. Ormond Lock and Dam below Mile 177 near Morrilton, to the Dardanelle Lock and Dam above Mile 205 near Dardanelle. Lake Dardanelle begins immediately above Rockefeller Lake.
The Bard Springs Bathhouse is a historic recreational support facility in Ouachita National Forest. It is located at the Bard Springs recreation site, southeast of Mena and north of Athens in Polk County, off County Road 82 and Forest Road 106 on the banks of Blaylock Creek. It is a single story rustic stone structure, with entrances at either end into open areas for changing. The interior is lit by skylights in the roof. It was built in 1936 by a crew of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and is one of four surviving CCC structures in the immediate area.
The Bard Springs Dam No. 1 is a historic recreational support facility in Ouachita National Forest. It is located at the Bard Springs recreation site, southeast of Mena and north of Athens in Polk County, off County Road 82 and Forest Road 106 on the banks of Blaylock Creek. This dam is located at the western end of the recreation area, and is about 65 feet (20 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) high at its center. It is made of fieldstone, and has a series of chutes and steps across its top. It was built in 1936 by a crew of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and is one of four surviving CCC structures in the immediate area.
The Bard Springs Dam No. 2 is a historic recreational support facility in Ouachita National Forest. It is located at the Bard Springs recreation site, southeast of Mena and north of Athens in Polk County, off County Road 82 and Forest Road 106 on the banks of Blaylock Creek. This dam is located at the eastern end of the recreation area, and is about 75 feet (23 m) long and 15 feet (4.6 m) high at its center. It is made of fieldstone, and has a series of staggered steps at its base to reduce erosion. It was built in 1936 by a crew of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and is one of four surviving CCC structures in the immediate area.
The Bard Springs Picnic Shelter is a historic recreational support facility in Ouachita National Forest. It is located at the Bard Springs recreation site, southeast of Mena and north of Athens in Polk County, off County Road 82 and Forest Road 106 on the banks of Blaylock Creek. It is a square open-air structure, with four rustic stone columns supporting a gabled roof. The foundation is stone, with the support columns set in concrete blocks. It was built in 1936 by a crew of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and is one of four surviving CCC structures in the immediate area.
Shady Lake Recreation Area is a campground and public recreation area in southwestern Ouachita National Forest, southwest of Mena, Arkansas and west of Glenwood, Arkansas. The area is oriented around Shady Lake, a body of water on the South Fork Saline River impounded by a dam built c. 1940 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The area is administered by the United States Forest Service (USFS).
The Charlton Recreation Area is a public use area of the Ouachita National Forest, located just north of United States Route 270 between Crystal Springs and Mount Ida, Arkansas. The area includes a campground and day use facilities for water-related activities on Walnut Creek, including fishing and swimming. The facilities are organized around a small artificial lake created in 1938 by a crew of the Civilian Conservation Corps by damming the creek. The stone Charlton Dam and Spillway, about 100 feet (30 m) in length, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places 1993, as was the stone Charlton Bathhouse, also built by the CCC in 1938.
The Caney Creek Wilderness is a rugged 14,460-acre (58.5 km2) segment of the Ouachita National Forest near the mountain town of Mena, Arkansas. It was designated by Congress in 1975 as the first wilderness area in Arkansas. The wilderness' main drainage and namesake, Caney Creek, winds through old-growth bottomland forest and is surrounded by tall, steep ridges, with the clear Cossatot River bordering the wilderness on the west side. The wilderness is known for exceptional air and water quality as well as virgin forest and excellent vistas.
Highway 128 is a designation for four east–west state highways in Southwest Arkansas. One route of 11.99 miles (19.30 km) begins at Highway 7 in Sparkman and runs east to Highway 9 at Holly Springs. A second route of 6.23 miles (10.03 km) begins at Highway 51 at Joan and runs east to Highway 7/Highway 8 at Gravel Junction. A third route begins at Highway 7 near DeGray Lake Resort State Park and runs east and north to US Highway 270 Business (US 270B) in Hot Springs. A fourth route begins at Highway 5 in Fountain Lake and runs east to US 70. All routes are maintained by the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT).
34°18′52″N93°58′37″W / 34.31444°N 93.97694°W