Hurricane Creek is a tributary to the Big Piney Creek, a river in Ozark-St. Francis National Forest in the state of Arkansas, which is a tributary of the Arkansas River and which is, in turn, part of the Mississippi River System. It is managed by the United States Forest Service and categorized as one of the Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States. [1]
Hurricane Creek is in Johnson and Newton counties of northwestern Arkansas, [2] on the Buffalo Ranger District, in Ozark National Forest. Deer, Corwell, and Pelsor are the unincorporated communities in the region. It is about 40 miles to the north of Russelville and 3 miles west of Pelsor. [1] Hurricane Creek has a mean discharge of 342 cubic feet per second.
FDR 1208 west of Scenic Byway 7, north of Pelsor/Sand Gap provides primary access to Hurricane Creek. Another access is FDR 1202/1209 from the community of Deer east and south of Highway 16. This goes to the old community of Chancel where Buck Branch enters Hurricane. It is also accessible via FDR 1002 coursing north from the Fort Douglas bridge to the junction of Hurricane and Big Piney Creek. [1]
The creek is 15.5 miles in length, of which 2.4 miles is classified as wild and 13.1 miles as scenic. [3] It flows through the Hurricane Creek Wilderness, established by the 1984 Arkansas Wilderness Act. It comprises 15,177 acres of land in the Boston Mountains. [4]
The mountains in the area are all actually plateaus, with elevation of 2,200 feet and above. The bluffs, some over 100 feet high, are made of limestone and sandstone. [5]
Trees include second and third-growth oak and hickory, and shortleaf pine. [4] The shrubbery consists mainly of dogwood, serviceberry, and witch hazel. [5]
Ozark is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States and one of the county's two seats of government. The community is located along the Arkansas River in the Arkansas River Valley on the southern edge of the Ozark Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 3,684.
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains 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.
The Boston Mountains is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Part of the Ozark Mountains, the Boston Mountains are a deeply dissected plateau. The ecoregion is steeper than the adjacent Springfield Plateau to the north, and bordered on the south by the Arkansas Valley. The Oklahoma portion of the range is locally referred to as the Cookson Hills.
The Ozark Highlands Trail roams 218 miles (351 km) through parts of seven counties in northwest Arkansas. It stretches from Lake Fort Smith State Park, across the Ozark National Forest, to the Buffalo National River. The trail passes through some of the most remote and scenic portions of the Ozark Mountains, like the Hurricane Creek Wilderness Area. It also crosses White Rock Mountain, Hare Mountain, the Marinoni Scenic Area, and many other scenic spots.
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 Current River forms in the southeastern portion of the Ozarks of Missouri and becomes a 7th order stream as it flows southeasterly out of the Ozarks into northeastern Arkansas where it becomes a tributary of the Black River, which is a tributary of the White River, a tributary of the Mississippi River. The Current River is approximately 184 miles (296 km) long and drains about 2,641 square miles (6,840 km2) of land mostly in Missouri and a small portion of land in northeastern Arkansas. The headwaters of the Current River are nearly 900 feet (270 m) above sea level, while the mouth of the river lies around 280 feet (85 m) above sea level. The basin drains a rural area that is dominated by karst topography, underlain by dolomite and sandstone bedrock with a small area of igneous rock southeast of Eminence, Missouri. The annual daily mean discharge of the river near Doniphan, Missouri is 2,815 cubic feet (79.7 m3) per second. In 1964, over 134 mi (160 km) of the upper course of the river and its tributaries were federally protected as the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the first national park in America to protect a river system.
The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the United States. It is 280 miles (450 km) long. The river's drainage basin is 11,049 square miles (28,620 km2) in area, one of the largest subbasins of the Columbia Basin. The mean annual discharge is 995 cubic feet per second (28.2 m3/s), with a maximum of 50,000 cu ft/s (1,400 m3/s) recorded in 1993 and a minimum of 42 cu ft/s (1.2 m3/s) in 1954.
The Hells Canyon Wilderness is a wilderness area in the western United States, in Idaho and Oregon. Created 46 years ago in 1975, the Wilderness is managed by both the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service and contains some of the most spectacular sections of the Snake River as it winds its way through Hells Canyon, North America's deepest river gorge and one of the deepest gorges on Earth. The Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984 added additional acreage and currently the area protects a total area of 217,927 acres (88,192 ha). It lies entirely within the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area except for a small 946-acre (383 ha) plot in southeastern Wallowa County, Oregon which is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The area that is administered by the Forest Service consists of portions of the Wallowa, Nez Perce, Payette, and Whitman National Forests.
The Mulberry River is a 70-mile-long (110 km) tributary of the Arkansas River in northwestern Arkansas in the United States. Via the Arkansas River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. It has been designated a National Wild and Scenic River. The drainage basin of the Mulberry River has an area of 373 square miles (970 km2) and the annual average mean flow of the river near its mouth is 557 cubic feet per second.
The Salmon River is a 33.5-mile (53.9 km) river in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon that drains part of southwestern Mount Hood. The entire length of the river is a protected National Wild and Scenic River. Several portions are in protected wilderness. It is affluent to the Sandy River, a tributary of the Columbia River.
The North Fork John Day Wilderness is a wilderness area within the Umatilla and Wallowa–Whitman National Forests in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon.
Eagle Cap Wilderness is a wilderness area located in the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon, within the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest. The wilderness was established in 1940. In 1964, it was included in the National Wilderness Preservation System. A boundary revision in 1972 added 73,000 acres (30,000 ha) and the Wilderness Act of 1964 added 66,100 acres (26,700 ha) resulting in a current total of 361,446 acres, making Eagle Cap by far Oregon's largest wilderness area.
The Wenaha–Tucannon Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, and southeastern Washington, United States. It was created by the Endangered American Wilderness Act of 1978 and encompasses 177,423 acres (71,801 ha) in the Umatilla National Forest — 66,375 acres (26,861 ha) in Oregon and 111,048 acres (44,940 ha) in Washington.
The Snow Mountain Wilderness is a 60,076-acre (243.12 km2) federally designated wilderness area located 65 miles (105 km) north of Santa Rosa, California, USA in the Mendocino National Forest. The U.S. Congress passed the California Wilderness Act of 1984 which created 23 new wilderness areas including Snow Mountain. It lies within the North Coast Range of mountains.
The Black Butte River is located in the Mendocino National Forest of northern California in Glenn and Mendocino counties. It is a tributary to the Middle Fork Eel River and flows northward for 24 miles (39 km) from its headwaters near Round Mountain to the confluence with the Middle Fork Eel River. The Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2006 added 21 miles (34 km) of the Black Butte River to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, of which 17.5 miles (28.2 km) are Wild status and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) are Scenic.
Ramsey's Draft Wilderness is a designated wilderness area in the North River Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of Virginia in the United States. The wilderness area was established in 1984 and comprises 6,518 acres (26.38 km2). It is administered by the US Forest Service.
Big Piney Creek is a river located in Ozark National Forest in the state of Arkansas. It is a tributary of the Arkansas River and therefore part of the Mississippi River watershed. Managed by the United States Forest Service, it flows for 70.8 miles (113.9 km) through Pope, Johnson and Newton counties. The headwaters of the creek are in a rugged, remote area just east of Arkansas Route 21 south of the community of Fallsville and the mouth of the creek empties into Lake Dardanelle on the Arkansas River.
The Matilija Wilderness is a 29,207-acre (11,820 ha) wilderness area in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, Southern California. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, being situated within the Ojai Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. It is located adjacent to the Dick Smith Wilderness to the northwest and the Sespe Wilderness to the northeast, although it is much smaller than either one. The Matilija Wilderness was established in 1992 in part to protect California condor habitat.
The White Rock Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was designated in 1976 as 280,000 acres (110,000 ha) of protected area within the boundaries of the Ozark National Forest. The WMA is owned by the U. S. Forest Service and managed under the provisions of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and is situated in the Boston Mountains of Northwest Arkansas.