Ozark Folk Center State Park
Begin your Ozark Mountain journey at the Ozark Folk Center in the community of Mountain View.
At the Ozark Folk Center you’ll find comfortable lodging and excellent meals, and you will enjoy the crafts village where you’ll meet folks who enjoy talking about life in the Ozarks while they demonstrate crafts and pioneer skills or play and sing tunes that have been passed down for generations. Special music shows, workshops, Elderhostel programs and craft exhibitions are held throughout the year, and festivals highlight the spring and fall seasons and Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Before leaving Mountain View be sure to walk the town square. The shops are interesting, especially if you like antiques, and the buildings made of Ozark rock give a hint to the county’s name – Stone. Head north on Highway 5 and 9, and you’ll soon take a long drop into the White River Valley. Follow the river on Highway 5, along the US Forest Service’s Sylamore Scenic Byway. Highway 5 crosses the White River at Calico Rock, another interesting place to spend a few minutes on Main Street. The town was named for the high, streaked bluffs along the White River here.
Bull Shoals-White River State Park
Continue on Highway 5 to Norfork. The Wolf House is one of the earliest remaining structures in Arkansas and is mentioned by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in his journals of exploration of the White River in Arkansas and Missouri in the early 1800s. With the White River on your left, you’ll cross the North Fork River as you leave Norfork. Stay on Highway 5 and you’ll soon be in Mountain Home. Stay on Highway 5 through Mountain Home. About 6 miles west of town, at Midway, turn left onto Highway 178. A short drive will take you to Lakeview. Before you cross the Bull Shoals Dam, take the road straight ahead to Bull Shoals-White River State Park.
Bull Shoals-White River State Park stretches along the river’s edge where the White River and Bull Shoals Lake join at Bull Shoals dam. The park, with 105 campsites, is one of Arkansas’s most popular campgrounds. 45,440-acre Bull Shoals Lake is popular for lunker bass, catfish and crappie, and the White River is renowned as mid-America’s premier trout stream, famous for record rainbows and browns. The lake and river create one of the nation’s finest fishing and boating combinations. The park trout dock has boat, motor, kayak and canoe rentals; supplies and equipment. Plus, the park offers guided lake cruises and river tours by kayak, canoe or john boat.
Mammoth Spring
To drive to the 10th largest spring in the world, Mammoth Spring, return to Mountain Home. In Mountain Home turn left onto US Highway 412/62 to Salem. From Salem, Highway 9 will take you into the mountain community of Mammoth Spring. The state park is at the junction of Highways 9 and 63.
Arkansas's largest spring, the state’s only National Natural Landmark, flows nine million gallons of water each hour. It forms a 10-acre lake, and then flows over a small dam creating the Spring River, a popular Ozark trout and float stream. At the dam, a 1920s hydroelectric plant exhibits most of the original equipment. The 1889 Frisco Depot will take you back to the early 1900s. Just outside the station is a Frisco caboose to tour, also. This day-use park includes an information center with exhibits about the spring, the power plant with exhibits, the 1889 Frisco Depot with exhibits, picnic sites, trail, ball field and playground.
Old Davidsonville
From Mammoth Spring, turn south on Highway 63 for a scenic drive to Hardy. You’ll stay on Highway 63 to Black Rock. But before leaving Hardy, you’ll want to walk Main Street and enjoy the shopping and atmosphere of this old town. This is also a good place to rent a canoe and float and fish the Spring River.
In Black Rock take highway 361 north to one of Arkansas’s oldest places – Old Davisdonville.
Davidsonville, established as a trading point on the Black River in 1815, soon had Arkansas Territory's first post office, courthouse and land office. Bypassed by the Southwest Trail, an overland route from St. Louis to Mexico, the town faded by the 1830s. Recent archeology has uncovered remarkable evidence of life in the settlement. Park exhibits and interpretive tours provide information about this important frontier town. Facilities include campsites, picnic areas, playgrounds, Black River access and four hiking trails including a paved, self-guided walking trail though the old town site.
Powhatan Historic State Park
Return to Black Rock, but continue south on Highway 25 to Powhatan. About three miles south of town you will see the dramatic courthouse. After Davidsonville was deserted, the Lawrence County Seat finally settled in Powhatan.
In the 1800s, this was a bustling Black River shipping port for a large territory. In 1888, high on an Ozark hill overlooking the busy riverfront, an imposing Victorian courthouse was built from bricks made on site. Now beautifully restored, the building includes exhibits that interpret the commerce, politics and lifestyles that shaped north Arkansas from the early 1800s to the early years of the 20th century. Join park staff for guided tours of historic Powhatan: the 1888 courthouse, the 1873 jail, 1850s Ficklin-Imboden Log House, 1887 commercial building and the 1889 Powhatan Male and Female Academy, a unique two-room schoolhouse.
Lake Charles
Continue south on Highway 25 and in five minutes you’ll arrive at Lake Charles State Park.
You will enjoy camping on the shore of Lake Charles, 645 acres of spring-fed waters in the Ozark Mountains. The lake is known for good catches of bass, crappie, bream and catfish. And there are picnic sites, hiking trails, a launch ramp, swimming beach and playground. Park interpretive programs include guided walks, evening programs, party barge lake tours and guided kayak tours.
Jacksonport State Park
We’ll conclude this Ozark Highway adventure with a drive out of the Ozarks. Jacksonport was the gateway to the Ozarks when rivers were highways. Head south on Highway 25 and you’ll soon enter the Delta region of Arkansas. At Strawberry, Highway 25 takes a left turn. North of the town of Cord, Highway 25 turns right, but continue straight on Highway 37/122 to Cord. In Cord take Highway 122 to Newark. Stay on Highway 122, 1 mile south of Newark, then turn left on Highway 69 and drive 11 miles to the river town of Jacksonport.
Steamboats made Jacksonport a thriving river port in the 1800s. During the Civil War, both Confederate and Union forces occupied the town because of its crucial river locale. Jacksonport became county seat in 1854, and construction of a stately, two-story brick courthouse began in 1869. The town began to decline in the 1880s when bypassed by the railroad. When the county seat moved in 1891, Jacksonport's stores, wharves and saloons soon vanished. Today, the 1872 courthouse and the Mary Woods No. 2, a sternwheel paddleboat, have been painstakingly restored. Interpretive programs and guided tours tell the story of this historic river port.
Jacksonport State Park has camping, picnic sites and a swimming beach along the White River, a playground, and the Tunstall Riverwalk and wildflower area.
We hope you enjoy your travels through the beauty and history of Arkansas’s eastern Ozarks. If you are heading south from Jacksonport take Highway 69 east to Newport, then Highway 67 south toward Little Rock. However, a good choice is to return to the starting point – the Ozark Folk Center - and remember the heritage you’ve now explored. Follow highway 69 from Jacksonport to Batesville. This is a modern, yet historic city. Batesville began as Poke Bayou in the early 1800s. It was a trading port on the White River and with the location on the river, the climate and proximity to the mountains and Delta, Batesville quickly became one of Arkansas’s leading communities. Today it has two colleges and all the refinements of a modern, growing city, yet it has an “old Ozark’ main street and two National Historic Districts. Be sure to stop at the Old Independence Regional Museum. The museum tells the story of 12 of the counties you have just toured.
Batesville to the Ozark Folk Center
One of the prettiest drives on this route is the drive from Batesville to the Ozark Folk Center. When you arrive in Batesville you are back in the Ozarks, and Highway 14 is a forested, mountain road that climbs to the high ground around Mountain View. Take Highway 167 south out of Batesville, cross the White River and climb the mountain. At the top, turn right onto Highway 25, and in about 7 miles you will come to Highway 14. Relax and enjoy the smooth road and gentle curves up and around these Ozark mountains to Mountain View.