Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/02/23

Summary

The Hooten Log Cabin is a split-log cabin constructed around 1860 by the Hooten family, who had come to Red River township in Van Buren County in the 1860s as homesteaders. They built the log cabin on their property acquired as a result of the Homestead Act of 1862 and the land and buildings on it remained in the Hooten family for the next three generations. Hobert Hooten inherited the land and cabin in the 1950s, at a time when the area was undergoing massive changes.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to build the Greers Ferry Dam which would flood the area around the river, including much of Hooten’s land. Sensing an opportunity, Hooten sold much of his land to the Corps and relocated the cabin to the top of a bluff above the Edgemont Shelter, a sandstone cave that was known for its petroglyphs and was already a popular tourist destination. Hooten built a staircase to the cave and began charging tourists money to visit. He and his wife operated the business until 1969, when they sold the cabin and the land to Fairfield Communities Incorporated for one dollar. They continued to operate it as a craft store until they combined it with the Log Cabin Museum in 1976. The Hooten Log Cabin now has interpretive displays inside to give visitors a view of life in the late 1800s.

The Hooten Log Cabin was an established business connected to Edgemont Shelter since the 1950s and played an important role in the development of tourism destinations in the town of Fairfield Bay. Thus, the Hooten Log Cabin is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the development of tourism in Fairfield Bay in the 1960s.

Narrative Description

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

Van Buren County has been occupied by Native American tribes such as the Osage, Cherokee, Quapaw, and Choctaw, approximately ten thousand years prior to European ingress. The Osage were forced to give up their land in Van Buren County in 1818 in an unequitable treaty with the U.S. government. For the early European settlers, this area was not ideal. The rocky and hilly terrain was inconvenient, far from major transportation routes and rivers, and did not provide much opportunity financially. However, a financial crisis and an influx of malaria cases in the east in the 1820s influenced settlers to move west and further away from malaria hotspots such as popular river transportation hubs, leading them to the Van Buren County area. The earliest settlement was the trading post at Cadron, and settlers took advantage of the unspoiled forests to build their homes.^[1] Van Buren County was formally established on November 11, 1833, from parts of Conway, Independence, and Izard counties. Initially, the county seat was Bloomington, but would be moved to Clinton in 1844 where it remains today. ^[2]

In the late 19^th century, farming was incredibly important in Van Buren County communities. Cotton, corn, dairy, and sawmills played a major role in keeping the local economy afloat. With agricultural expansion after the 1910s and 1920s and the Missouri & North Arkansas (M&NA) Railroad established in Shirley, community members were able to obtain other jobs, such as in the oil and gas industry. A decrease in forestry also began hurting the local economies. Fortunately, dairy, poultry, and agriculture were able to fill the void the timber left.^[3] Eventually, the M&NA shut down their establishments in 1946 due to mismanagement and the communities in the area around Greers Ferry had to find another source of income and transportation.^[4] Prosperity returned to the area with the creation of the Greers Ferry Lake and tourism became the foundation of the local economy. Hobert Hooten and his family were some of the residents who were able to capitalize on this new opportunity.

The Hooten Log Cabin was originally built by the Hooten family sometime around the 1870s. Martin Hooten (sometimes Hooton or Horton) was born in Tennessee in 1827 and moved with his wife to Arkansas in his mid-twenties, settling down as a farmer in Royal, White County, in the 1850s.^[5] When the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed by Congress, Martin took advantage of the new opportunities afforded by the law to acquire 160 acres of land in Van Buren County between Sugar Loaf Mountain and Eglantine in the Red River township.^[6] The family quickly moved to their new homestead and recorded their residence as Red River in the 1870 census.^[7] The cabin was likely built around this time by the family themselves, perhaps with the help of any neighbors that were available and willing, as was the custom for many other similar cabins in the mid-1800s. The Hooten family retained ownership of their land in Red River for the next three generations until Benjamin Hobert Hooten inherited the property in the 1950s.^[8]

When Hooten inherited his family’s land and its associated properties, the area around Red River township was slated to be inundated by a new dam to create Greers Ferry Lake. The Little Red River, which flowed through White, Van Buren, Searcy, Stone, and Cleburne counties, had a reputation for yearly floods that caused significant property damage, especially downriver in the White River basin. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the White River and its tributaries, of which the Little Red River was one, in the 1940s and selected five sites upon which to build concrete dams. The last of the dams, the Beaver and Greers Ferry dams, were begun in 1960, and the latter was completed in 1962.^[9]

When Greers Ferry Dam was selected by the Corps of Engineers, residents of the riverside communities learned that the dam would submerge their properties under the new Greers Ferry Lake. The towns of Miller, Higden, Shiloh, and Edgemont were among those in the path of the lake, as was the Hooten family property near Edgemont.^[10] In order to recoup some of the value of his property, Hobert Hooten elected to sell much of his land to the Corps of Engineers in 1957, though he retained ownership of a parcel near the Edgemont Shelter (also known as Indian Rock House, Cobb Cave, or Indian Rock Cave).^[11]

The Edgemont Shelter is a sandstone cave that had been used by multiple Native American groups from the Archaic period to the Late Mississippian, a period of almost 8,000 years. The Shelter is well-known for its petroglyphs, including several human figures and geometric shapes.^[12] Archaeologists first visited the site in the 1920s. Samuel Dellinger, the curator of the University of Arkansas Museum, surveyed the cave in 1931 and gave it the name Edgemont Shelter, after the town of Edgemont which was the closest settlement to the site.^[13] Unfortunately, the cave became a popular tourist destination, and from the 1930s to the 1960s, visitors were allowed to dig for artifacts. In the 1960s, when Hooten owned the property, a backhoe removed almost six feet of sediment from the cave, ostensibly so that tourists could not reach the petroglyphs to damage them.^[14] Though no professional excavations have been undertaken at the Edgemont Shelter, the cave was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for its rock art.^[15]

Due to Edgemont’s proven popularity as a tourist draw combined with its location on Hooten’s land, Hobert Hooten saw a prime opportunity to take advantage of burgeoning tourism. He decided to move the Hooten family log cabin to the bluff ledge above the shelter to serve as a store and ticket office. The cabin became Hooten’s office, and he sold tickets to tourists who wished to visit Edgemont Shelter for ten cents per person. His wife, Mildred, also used the cabin as a craft store.^[16]

When he reassembled the structure, he made a few alterations to the cabin. He added an addition with two rooms to the back to serve as extra office space, replaced the mud chinking with cement, and built a staircase below the cabin down to the Edgemont Shelter.^[17] The Hootens operated their ticket sales and craft store from the log cabin until they sold the property to Fairfield Bay Inc. in 1969.^[18]

Fairfield Bay Inc. continued to operate a small craft business out of the cabin until the construction of the Log Cabin Museum, directly across from the Hooten Log Cabin, in 1976. Fairfield Bay Inc. declared bankruptcy in 1993 and management of the town and log cabin came under the purview of The City of Fairfield Bay and the Fairfield Bay Resort and Community Club, who consolidated the Log Cabin Museum, the Hooten Log Cabin, and the Edgemont Shelter as a local historic district. The Hooten Log Cabin is still owned by Fairfield Bay Resort and Community and serves as part of the Log Cabin Museum, providing interpretation and displays on early settlers in the area and wildlife.^[19]

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The town of Fairfield Bay did not exist when Hooten moved the cabin to the bluff above Edgemont Shelter in 1957. When the Army Corps of Engineers announced their plan to build the Greers Ferry Dam, which would create a new, 40,000-acre lake, three Fort Smith entrepreneurs saw a chance to build a resort and timeshare community. George Jacobus, Neal Simonson, and Randolph Warner formed a company called Fairfield Communities Incorporated (FCI) and began purchasing swaths of land around Greers Ferry Lake and by 1965, the company had almost 3,500 acres of land. The residents who bought land from the company paid a small annual fee that went towards recreational facilities also owned and operated by FCI.^[20]

A resort required amenities, and FCI expanded their property portfolio to include the Wild Boar Restaurant, a marina, tennis courts, a golf course, and hiking trails around the lake. The Hooten Log Cabin, situated next to Edgemont Shelter, proved an enticing addition to FCI’s tourism offering. Hooten had already been operating a business out of the log cabin since 1957 and Edgemont Shelter was popular with tourists. FCI offered to buy the cabin from Hooten, and he agreed to sell it in 1969 for one dollar, on the condition that FCI take good care of the cabin. FCI continued using the cabin as a store for crafts and trinkets and eventually combined it with the Log Cabin Museum that they built in 1976.^[21] Tourism in Fairfield Bay grew along with the community into the 1990s. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated that almost 5.5 million people visited the lake and surrounding area by 2000 and contributed almost $130 million to the local economy.^[22]

The Hooten Log Cabin was an established business connected to Edgemont Shelter since the 1950s and played an important role in the development of tourism destinations in the town of Fairfield Bay. Thus, the Hooten Log Cabin is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the development of tourism in Fairfield Bay in the 1960s. The Hooten Log Cabin was determined not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places due to the metal roof which was added after the 1969 period of significance.

Bibliography

A Reminiscent History of The Ozark Region. Chicago, IL: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1894.

Arkansas Archaeological Survey. “Indian Rock Cave or Edgemont Shelter at Fairfield Bay.” University of Arkansas. Available at: https://archeology.uark.edu/ozarkbluffshelters/learn-more/visit-a-shelter/edgemont-shelter-at-fairfield-bay/. Accessed 31 May 2023.

Baker, Sharon. “Van Buren County.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas, November 4, 2022. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/van-buren-county-817/. Accessed 31 May 2023.

Cothren, Zachary A. “Greers Ferry Lake and Dam.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 03 Jan. 2023. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/greers-ferry-dam-and-lake-2320/. Accessed 31 May 2023.

Feuer, David. “Log Cabin & Museum.” Lake Area Weekly. 29 Apr. 2016. Available at: https://fairfieldbaynews.com/log-cabin-museum/. Accessed 31 May 2023.

Gardner, Cheryl, and Bailey, Jill. “Determination of Eligibility for Hooten Log Cabin.” 30 Dec. 2022. In the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

Kohl, Julie. “Fairfield Bay Log Cabin Museum and Indian Rock Cave.” Only In Arkansas. 06 Aug. 2020. Available at: https://onlyinark.com/places-and-travel/fairfield-bay-log-cabin-museum-and-indian-rock-cave/. Accessed 31 May 2023.

Ryman, Eleanor Bowling. A History of Van Buren County, 1833-1983. Conway, AR: River Road Press, 1982.

United States Federal Census 1850. “M. Hooton.” Ancestry.com. Available at: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/10041806:8054. Accessed 31 May 2023.

U.S. Census Bureau 1870. “James M. Hooten.” Ancestry.com. Available at: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/14080358:7163. Accessed 31 May 2023.

U.S. Census Bureau. “Arkansas 185th Anniversary of Statehood (1836): June 15, 2021.” Census.gov. Elizabeth Lightfoot Broach, December 16, 2021. Available at: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/arkansas.html#:~:text=Arkansas%20was%20admitted%20to%20the,as%20part%20of%20Louisiana%20Territory.

Van Buren County Historical Society. A Pictorial History of Van Buren County, Arkansas: Memories of a Century 1890-1990. Marceline, Missouri: Heritage House Publishing, 1990.

White, James. “Fairfield Bay (Van Buren and Cleburne Counties).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 31 May 2023. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/fairfield-bay-van-buren-and-cleburne-counties-1002/. Accessed 01 June 2023.