Flatside Wilderness | |
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Location | Perry County, Arkansas |
Nearest city | Perryville, Arkansas |
Coordinates | 34°51′35″N92°56′51″W / 34.85972°N 92.94750°W Coordinates: 34°51′35″N92°56′51″W / 34.85972°N 92.94750°W |
Area | 9,507 acres (3,847 ha) |
Created | October 19, 1984 |
Governing body | U.S. Forest Service |
The Flatside Wilderness is a 9,507-acre protected area in the U.S. state of Arkansas. [2] It is one of six wilderness areas in the Ouachita National Forest and also the easternmost. [2] Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy the area in a number of ways, including an 8.9-mile section of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail.
The Flatside Wilderness was designated by passage of "The Arkansas Wilderness Act of 1984", Public Law 98-508, which was signed by President Ronald Reagan on October 19, 1984. Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AR) sponsored the Act in the U.S. Senate, which was co-sponsored by Senator David Pryor (D-AR) and Senator John Tower (R-TX). An earlier version of the bill called "The Arkansas Wilderness Act of 1983" had been sponsored in the House of Representatives by Representative Beryl Anthony (D-AR) and Representative Ed Bethune (R-AR). [3] On September 8th, 2019, a bill sponsored by Congressman French Hill was signed into law which expanded the wilderness area by 640 acres. [4] The area was named the Bethune Woods segment, in honor of the politician who helped create the original wilderness in the first place. The bill also directed the US Forest Service to study additional woodlands surrounding the wilderness in the hopes that they are eligible to add to the area.
The wilderness' namesake, Flatside Pinnacle, lies just outside of the area and is known as one of the best vistas in Arkansas. [5]
Flatside Wilderness is located in southern Perry County and northwestern Saline County, though most of it (about 70%) is in Saline County. It is approximately 8 miles north of Hot Springs Village and 21 miles west of Little Rock, and is accessible from Arkansas Highway 7 and Arkansas Highway 9.
It is located in the eastern terminus of the Ouachita National Forest, which covers approximately 1.8 million acres of western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. It is part of the Ouachita Mountains and features a number of ridges and summits exceeding 1,000 feet in elevation. The highest is White Oak Mountain (1,790 feet), a broad ridge spanning the western edge of the area. Others include (in order of descending height): Crystal Mountain, Grindstone Mountain, Flatside Pinnacle, and Forked Mountain. These rise high above the forest and offer spectacular vistas for miles. Mount Magazine, the highest point in Arkansas, can even be seen on clear days.
Flatside Wilderness is home to multiple streams. The two most notable ones are Cedar Creek and Crystal Prong. Cedar Creek is joined by Little Cedar Creek and flows along the eastern edge of Forked Mountain just before its confluence with the South Fourche La Fave River. Crystal Prong flows generally east to west and merges with Cedar Creek near Forked Mountain. The South Fourche La Fave River empties into the Fourche La Fave River east of Nimrod, which empties into the Arkansas River southeast of Bigelow.
The Flatside Wilderness consists of two geologic formations: Pennsylvanian Jackfork Sandstone and Mississippian Stanley Shale. [6] Because Jackfork Sandstone is composed almost entirely of quartz and has undergone low-grade regional metamorphism, it has weathered at a lesser rate than the Stanley Shale, hence the high-relief sandstone ridges like White Oak Mountain. [6]
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri, extending from Interstate 40 in central Arkansas to Interstate 70 in central Missouri.
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.
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The Ozark – St. Francis National Forest is a United States National Forest that is located in the state of Arkansas. It is composed of two separate forests, Ozark National Forest in the Ozark Mountains; and St. Francis National Forest on Crowley's Ridge. Each forest has distinct biological, topographical, and geological differences.
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).
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The Black Fork Mountain Wilderness Area is located in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Created by an act of Congress in 1984, the wilderness covers an area of 13,139 acres (53 km²). The Arkansas portion contains 8,430 acres (34.1 km2) and the Oklahoma portion contains 5,140 acres (20.8 km2). Located within Ouachita National Forest, the wilderness is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The area is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Page, Oklahoma, and about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Mena, Arkansas.
Ouachita National Recreation Trail is a 223-mile (359 km) long, continuous hiking trail through the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas. It is the longest backpacking trail in the Ouachita National Forest, spanning 192 miles across its length. Approximately 177 miles of the trail is in Arkansas and 46 miles of the trail is in Oklahoma. The trail is used by hikers, backpackers, hunters, and mountain bikers. It is a non-motorized single track trail open only to foot traffic and partially open to mountain bicycles. Segments opened to mountain bikes are from the western terminus of the Ouachita Trail at Talimena State Park to the Big Cedar trailhead on US Highway 259 at approximately Mile Marker (MM) 30.5 in Oklahoma, and from the Talimena Scenic Drive Trailhead at MM 54.1, east to Highway 7 at mile 160.4, north of Jessieville, Arkansas.
The Salmon–Huckleberry Wilderness is a wilderness area located on the southern side of Mount Hood in the northwestern Cascades of Oregon, in the United States. It lies within the Mount Hood National Forest and comprises 62,061 acres (25,115 ha) of land. The United States Congress designated the area Wilderness in 1984.
The Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness is a wilderness area located on the northern side of Mount Hood in the northwestern Cascades of the U.S. state of Oregon, near the Columbia River Gorge and within Mount Hood National Forest. Prior to Wilderness designation it was known as the Columbia Gorge Recreation Area.
The U.S. Interior Highlands is a mountainous region in the Central United States spanning northern and western Arkansas, southern Missouri, eastern Oklahoma, and extreme southeastern Kansas. The name is designated by the United States Geological Survey to refer to the combined subregions of the Ouachita Mountains south of the Arkansas River and the Ozark Plateaus north of the Arkansas. The U.S. Interior Highlands is one of few mountainous regions between the Appalachians and Rockies.
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.
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The Stanley Shale, or Stanley Group, is a Mississippian stratigraphic unit in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. First described in Arkansas in 1892, this unit was not named until 1902 by J.A. Taff in his study of the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma. Taff assigned the town of Stanley in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma as the type locality, but did not designate a stratotype. After introduction into Arkansas in 1909 by Albert Homer Purdue, the unit was redefined in 1918, when the formation known as the Fork Mountain Slate was abandoned and partially combined into the Stanley Shale. As of 2017, a reference section for the Stanley Shale has yet to be designated.
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