The Balance of Pristine Lowland Mixed With The History Of A Moonshine Kingdom Offers Intriguing History
Standing there in complete darkness, a tremendous waterfall rumbles 30 feet from the top of the Eden Falls Cave, filling the space with sound and spray. This is the ultimate payoff for the two-mile hike up into the Lost Valley of the Ozark Mountains, the last 150 feet done crouching and crawling.
"For many thousands of people that 40-yard cave is one of the first wild caving experiences they have ever had,” Mike Mills said. Mills is the founder of the Buffalo Outdoor Center in Ponca, just up the road, and he leads people to the formation every year. "Teaching is a tremendous experience and I have had the great reward of helping people discover Eden Falls Cave on their own. [They often] come back excited with their own personal stories that will last a lifetime."
Water cascades off the same hill to form Eden Falls, which gushes out below from the massive overhang bluff called Cob Cave. This place, say archeologists, was a favorite wintering camp for local Indians a thousand years ago. It received its name when early settlers discovered corncobs discarded by the native inhabitants, but there were other artifacts, as well.
"Most people have no idea that they found actual moccasins and reed baskets and arrowheads -- all kind of things,” Mills said. Those items went into the archives at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The Lost Valley trail is a day-use only park that draws thousands of travelers to this remote this landscape in the Ozark Mountains. A canyon scrawled into the hillside by Clark Creek, the park owes its expanse to millions of years of water flow. A lot of it has to do with the acidity of the groundwater, theorized by Ken , a local researcher in the area. Geologists maintain that the entire Lost Valley was once a hollowed-out limestone cave, which collapsed under its own weight, leaving a landscape of boulders, ferned bluffs, waterfalls, and emerald pools.
The road to Lost Valley winds through a narrow strip of pristine lowland that includes a meandering stretch of the Buffalo River, a farm-rich area called the Boxley Valley. The skeletons of old barns and one-room wooden cabins dot this rustic landscape. A herd of Elk, the last of their kind this far south, lounges lazily near the tree line.
The Boxley Valley was settled by rough-hewn pioneers like "Beaver Jim" Villines. The legendary trapper hacked together a wooden cabin for his bride in 1850. Today the Villines descendants are ubiquitous in the area.
This is also the turf of legendary lawman Guy Bennett, a man who once described himself as "six-foot-three inches of gristle.” He was sheriff of Newton County in the 1960s but quit when his wife insisted he was risking his life. The illegal moonshine stills in these hills were a fountain for the kind of high-octane hooch that made the region infamous. An amusing anecdote claims Bennett cleaned his fingerprint machine with the illegal whisky.
"I called myself a mountain man sheriff," Bennett told the Harrison Daily in 2008. "These mountain boys played rough."
Hard drink was a natural by-product of prodigious corn production. However, in recent years moonshine making has tapered off in this county as more and more stills were busted and the remaining producers went legit. The last bust in Newton County was in 2003, Arkansas Beverage Control agents confirmed.
There is also evidence of less volatile products. Near the Lost Valley trailhead on Arkansas 43, rolling fields of baled hay stretch to the edge of the forest. Cows and sheep can be seen grazing near the road. Heritage vegetables like Kale and squash are offered for sale at places like the Villines Family Farm.
There is also a burgeoning tourism business, based on the accessibility of the federally protected Buffalo River and the wildlife that thrives here. The National Park Service introduced Rocky Mountain Elk to this valley in the early 1980s. The smaller Eastern Elk was native here, but early settlers hunted them to extinction. Now more than 800 strong, the modern Elk occupy more than a 150-mile stretch of land. During the Elk rut, travelers can easily come to Boxley to glimpse the animals.
The Lost Valley has an impressive ecology today and is a rich source of marine fossils. Currently, the soil is rich from the constant flow of Clark Creek, and many ferns, wildflowers and cucumber trees as well as the American Basswood, are indigenous to area.
Despite its rich ecology and natural beauty, the land found itself in private hands in 1960, when the lumber on the west end was sold for $500. Lumberjacks savaged a path through the hardwoods to "within sight" of Cob Cave. Seeing the devastation visited on this natural resource, it became clear that conservation was needed. Through land purchases, the State of Arkansas cobbled together a park of nearly 300 acres. It then donated the land to the U.S. government, which made Lost Valley part of the Buffalo National River park in 1975.
Lost Valley Trail & The Buffalo River constitute a trip back into time…a place where bootleggers and the law alike played their game of cat and mouse while the water flowed and the politics of the region swirled. Standing on the edge of the treacherous Eden Falls, to which officials urge caution when visiting, the history of the area seeps into the bones.
David Irvin
A graduate with a Masters Of Science from the University Of North Texas, David has written on many beats including crime and business for such outlets as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Montgomery Advertiser & USA. He enjoys RVing and surfing the Internet.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Kettle Campground, less than 32 miles from Lost Valley, conveniently located on the east side of Eureka Springs, 2 Miles east of Hwy 23 on Hwy 62 with 3 types of RV sites for your camping convenience