The most powerful recorded tornado in Arkansas history turned the Jackson County community of Sneed into a ghost town in a single day on April 10, 1929.
Having first touched down south of Batesville in late afternoon, the only Arkansas tornado to receive the top F5 rating moved east to flatten Sneed. At least 23 people were killed and 56 injured there and elsewhere in Jackson County.
Witnesses estimated the tornado’s peak width at up to half a mile. No buildings in Sneed were left intact. The only evidence of the town today, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, is a clearing where the church and school once stood.
Arkansas ghost towns are glimpses of days gone by
The ghost towns of Arkansas are haunted by history. Their silent streets and ramshackle ruins give a shadowy sense of past prosperity that sustained families and businesses. Then fortune faded, eventually leaving a scant population or none at all.
With Halloween on the horizon, ghosts are lurking as a seasonal motif. They linger all year long in Rush, Snowball, Arkansas Post, Cadron Settlement, Rohwer, Monte Ne, Calico Rock and other desolate dots on The Natural State map. Their aura of mystery is one allure for visitors.
A ghost town “was once an active community but has since been abandoned by all or nearly all of its residents,” as defined by britannica.com. Listed reasons include “economic or resource issues, natural disasters, extreme climates, war and other armed conflicts, the building of dams, pollution and nuclear disasters.”
Forgotten towns
In the case of Rush, now a popular Buffalo National River attraction, abandonment stemmed from economics: the collapse of the zinc-mining boom after World War I.
When Rush was incorporated as a city in 1916, the population stood near 5,000. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the bustling town then “was recognized as the most prosperous city per capita in the state.”
By 1920, “the demand and price for zinc rapidly declined, and the population of Rush began to erode.”
Nobody lives anymore in Rush, where scattered ruins of homes, businesses and mining facilities on the Buffalo National River’s north bank evoke a ghost-town movie set.
Marion County Road 6035 leads northeast from Arkansas 14 to Rush Landing, site of a general store, post office and houses from the early 1900s. A walking trail loops for two-tenths of a mile past remnants of the Morning Star mining community, including a barn, hotel, blacksmith shop, smelter, office and company store. A strenuous 4-mile trail passes more mines. Their entrances are closed for safety reasons.
The ghost town of Snowball, south of the Buffalo National River in Searcy County, has shrunk to a few residents from a peak population of about 500 before World War II. Its post office closed in 1966.
Snowball still has an active Masonic lodge building, as well as a ramshackle general store that sells T-shirts touting its ghost-town status. The ruins of a former high school cast a spectral air on the edge of town.
Arkansas Post, the state’s oldest ghost town, was founded as a military headquarters by the French in the 18th century and finally abandoned after the Civil War. Visitors to Arkansas Post National Memorial can walk a level path past signs pointing out former structures.
When Arkansas became a U.S. territory in 1819, the site was its first capital. Two years later, the capital moved to Little Rock. The settlement shrank in following decades. Then a Civil War attack by Union gunboats in 1863 destroyed the riverfront Confederate fort along with the town’s remaining buildings. The memorial’s visitor center describes the former community.
Lost in time
Perched on a river bluff 5 miles west of Conway, the replica of a two-story blockhouse built by settler John McElmurry in 1818 marks the abandoned site of Cadron Settlement. In 1820, Cadron was briefly designated to be both Arkansas’ territorial capital and the seat of Pulaski County. But the territorial legislature soon changed its mind in favor of Little Rock.
The ghostly ambiance of Rohwer, in rural Desha County, reflects its role as a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans. The Rohwer Relocation Center housed 8,300 detainees before closing in 1945 as the war’s end neared.
Visitors to the Rohwer site are likely to have the memorial to themselves — a solitude that enhances the dolor of the setting. A replica guard tower at the entrance makes the point that this was a place of involuntary confinement.
Two monuments bear the names of 31 Rohwer internees who enlisted in the U.S. Army and were killed in action in Italy and France. Also visible are 24 headstones marking the burials of civilians. A plaque honors George Takei, interned at Rohwer as a boy and later famous for his “Star Trek” role.
One Arkansas ghost town of note is almost entirely underwater. Monte Ne was founded as a resort in 1900 by eccentric visionary William H. “Coin” Harvey.
The Benton County attraction included three hotels, a bank and a 5-mile connecting railroad. After interest in the resort declined, creditors foreclosed in 1927. Harvey, who died in 1936, is buried at Monte Ne in a concrete vault.
The building of Beaver Dam in the 1960s flooded the resort. A few remains are still visible, including Harvey’s tomb and parts of two hotels.
Calico Rock, perched on White River bluffs in Izard County, qualifies as half a ghost town. Today’s population of about 1,000 lives in the upper part. Below and across a short bridge lies an abandoned neighborhood, including a former wagon yard known as Peppersauce Alley because moonshine whiskey was sold there.
Visitors can stroll past 20-plus derelict structures from decades past. They include a pool hall, a theater, a cafe, a barber shop, a funeral parlor, a lumberyard, a cotton gin, a telephone exchange and an electric company.
Only a spark of imagination is needed to imagine the lurking ghosts of long-ago residents.