Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/02/14

SUMMARY

The Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge, of Casscoe, Arkansas, is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A, for its association with the historic cultural sporting for ducks between c.1955 and 1964. The property is significant for its representation of a facility used for social and recreational hunting purposes in the Arkansas Delta. The lodge is the centerpiece of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Potlatch Conservation Education Center on Cook’s Lake, as it was also the centerpiece of the Lion Oil Duck hunting lodge in Casscoe, Arkansas, from c.1955 through 1967 when Lion Oil sold the property. The lodge is also significant for its mid-century interior design created out of high grade local wood. This property is a wonderful example of a hunting lodge rehabilitated into a well-preserved example of a facility that promotes our state’s rich hunting heritage through on-going educational programming.

ELABORATION

“When the dazzling colors of fall turn to brown and the nip in the air develops a frosty bite, many Arkansans retreat inside the wall until spring’s warm breezes return. But, not the Arkansas hunter. This is the time to load up the guns and crossbows, and pull on the wool socks and a warm jacket and head for the outdoors.

Some hunters venture out in search of the thousands of ducks that flock the wetlands of Arkansas’ Delta region to spend the winter…” [1]

Arkansas has widely been recognized as on the greatest hunting spots in the United States from the days as a territory through today. It is said that much of this reputation came from widely publicized articles like the articles in the 1887 Harper’s Weekly that states Arkansas is…

“associated with scenes of sport, there is no state in the Union that affords the kinds of hunting as in Arkansas. Situated as it is below the snow-line, its turkeys, grouse, and quail suffer but little from the rigors while in both spring and autumn it is the half-way house between North and South for many species of migratory fowl and waders.”[2]

The State of Arkansas is entirely covered by the funnel-shaped Mississippi flyway used by waterfowl including geese and ducks.[3] These can be seen in the writing of N. Hollister in the Wilson Bulletin of the Wilson Ornithological Society. He is writing specifically about the winter birds of Arkansas that fly along the funnel-shaped flyway zone through Arkansas. He describes the populations of birds, especially the ducks and geese that he was able to observe in Arkansas, Prairie and Lonoke Counties. Though the abundance of bird species can be seen along places like the White River basin and the area surrounding the Grand Prairie a parallel can be made that the increase in rice farming in this region in the late 1890s, helped in creating a haven for these birds.Though farming in the Grand Prairie has been a way of life for generations, rice farming is still a very recent phenomenon that started in 1897 by William H. Fuller. Mr. Fuller had moved from Nebraska to Arkansas and on a hunting trip to Louisiana saw rice being cultivated; therefore, he planted three-acres of rice in 1897 and it failed to produce anything. He then moved to Louisiana to work on a rice farm. He stayed in Louisiana until 1903 when he moved back to Arkansas to reapply his rice trade in the Grand Prairie region again.[4] He then planted seventy acres of rice near Carlisle, Arkansas, and made a living planting rice for years to come, ever changing the Grand Prairie through today.[5]

With the new changes to the Grand Prairie taking shape, the landscape surrounding these rice fields changed as well. By November the rice that has been planted in this region has already been harvested and the stubble is left on the ground. What makes these areas so vibrant to ducks and other water fowl is that when the rice is harvested, the “rice kernels that have shattered off during harvest, provide a bountiful food supply…for the millions of migrant [birds] which pour through the Prairie in winter.”[6] With the ducks feeding on the surrounding rice fields in Arkansas County at night, they land and rest on the waterways found along the White River Basin, especially in areas like the oxbow lakes found along the river like Cook’s Lake found adjacent to the Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge. It is stated that an estimated “forty to fifty percent of all North American wildfowl use the Mississippi flyway and pass through this tube along the White River.
Having the lodge located between the ducks’ feeding ground and their resting location, the hunters associated with the lodge were able to capitalize on the lodge’s prime location that was sprung upon by the Lion Oil Company as a retreat location for company officials to relax and enjoy hunting. Lion Oil was able to get its start in the oil refinery business in 1922 with a small refinery in El Dorado, Arkansas, and maintained a steady business through World War II. By 1943, the United States was quickly moving to mobilize both men and equipment to both the European and Pacific Theaters of action during World War II. In doing so, the United States Government built the Ozark Ordnance Works to produce anhydrous ammonia for wartime uses. With the new plants location to the refinery business owned by Lion Oil, the United States Army Ordnance Department designated that the Lion Oil Company operate the installation for the Ordnance Department. With the victory over Japan on September 2, 1945, the Ozark Ordnance Works had little use for the War Department. Therefore, in “May 1946, Lion Oil took over the plant for private operation on a lease basis, and on March 2, 1948 purchased it outright.”[7]
In the years following the end of World War II, the Lion Oil Company had a booming business throughout Arkansas, where it went from fifty people in 1922 to 2,300 employees in 1951. With oil production up at the refinery and the chemical plant beginning to make strides in the market, the Lion Oil Company was beginning to branch out and wanted to be able to entertain other officials with a corporate retreat center. With Arkansas known for its great duck hunting in the winter months, Lion Oil took advantage of the great resource located along the White River and the recently created White River National Wildlife Refuge.[8] At the time Lion Oil purchased the property along the White River the Refuge was split into a north and south unit with much of the northern unit still in private ownership, while the south unit was mainly under United States Fish and Wildlife Services administration. With the lodge being located in the northern unit of the refuge boundary, the company began to buy up the property around Cook’s Lake[9] in Arkansas County from the local owners to provide a duck hunting lodge for the Barton Family[10] and the Lion Oil Company. Though it is stated by the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation that the land began to be purchased in 1946, evidence on file shows that at least Margaret McGuire and Zelma Ingram sold their land to Lion Oil in 1947.[11] By at least the end of 1947, the Lion Oil Company had “built a 4,800 square foot hunting lodge along with various support structures and its own self-sustaining water system.”[12] Other building associated with the lodge include the cook’s shack, the caretaker’s house, a laundry building, a maintenance building, (all are still standing) and at least small apartment units and a water tower, which have since been destroyed, though the foundations of both are still in place.
Sometime between 1947 and the mid to late 1950s, a fire destroyed the hunting lodge. It is then known that by the late 1950s, a new 4,800 square foot hunting lodge was built to replace the lodge that had been destroyed by fire. This new lodge remained similar to the old lodge and helps illustrate the wonderful scenery which surrounds the lodge through the use of the large glass wall in the “Great Room” that overlooks Cook’s Lake.
Though the main function of the lodge throughout the years has been duck hunting, it also was used as a corporate retreat center for the owners of the Lion Oil Company, because by the middle of the 1960s, other notable public figures had visited the location for a hunting trip including western hero John Wayne. Though duck hunting was a main function of the lodge, other hunting including deer hunting and fishing were practiced while hosting at the lodge.
However, by 1967 the Lion Oil Company sold the property to Mark Townsend of Townsend Lumber Company of Stuttgart, Arkansas.[13] Townsend would retain the ownership of the hunting lodge for four years but sold the entire Lumber Company, mill, and lodge to the Potlatch Corporation in 1971. It is noted that Potlatch allowed Mark Townsend to “retain lifetime hunting and fishing rights on the property while Potlatch assumed all management and maintenance expenses for Cook’s Lake during his lifetime.”[14]
The Potlatch Corporation would retain ownership of the hunting lodge from 1971 to 1999. During this time, the company also hosted several prominent people at the lodge including former President George H. W. Bush, who visited the lodge for a hunting trip in the winter of 1995. Yet, the area surrounding the lodge and Cook’s Lake was part of other national importance in 1990 when the 49 nation delegation known as the Ramsar Convention “recognized the 200-acre Cook’s Lake and its surrounding property as one of only eight designated wetlands of international importance.”[15]
However, by 1994, the Potlatch Corporation had already been looking for future plans for the property, one of which circulated around an idea by Potlatch’s Public Affairs Director for the Arkansas Region, Barbara Pardue. Ms. Pardue’s idea was to create a conservation education center in the lodge and though it had support, there was more support for selling the property outright. Though bids were submitted they were not accepted because by the time the bid were to be accepted, enough support had been raised to further expand the idea put forward by Mrs. Pardue, with the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation as the lead agency. Those entities that were involved in creating the Potlatch Conservation Education Center were the Potlatch Corporation, Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and the United State Fish and Wildlife Service. Through the agreement, the Potlatch Corporation would accept $1 million less for the property than it would have raised through the bidding process to sell the property. It also stated that Potlatch would donate the seventy-two acres in which the current buildings sit on, while the United State Fish and Wildlife Service would purchase the other 1,750 acres. By 1999 the dream of a Conservation Education Center had been completed and has remained a great steward of the property and in protecting the future and the past of both Cook’s Lake environmental impact for waterfowl and the lodge’s past as a once great hunting lodge in the middle of the tube known as the Mississippi flyaway zone.[16] However, with the creation of the Potlatch Conservation Education Center, the use of the land and water associated with the great duck hunting experienced by Lion Oil, Townsend Lumber Company and Potlatch, had changed from hunting of the animal in its surrounding to education of the animals and their surroundings.
The area surrounding the lodge was once home to many duck hunting lodges along the White River. However, unlike the other hunting lodges that have been built and since no longer exist, the Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge has stood the stand of time and property acquisition. Though a couple lodges still do remain including the Crocketts Bluff Hunting Lodge, in Crocketts Bluff, Arkansas, in southern Arkansas County, many have fallen into disrepair.

[2] Matthew Stith, “Women Locked the Doors, Children Screamed, and Men Trembled in Their Boots”: Black Bears and People of Arkansas, Arkansas Historical Quarterly Journal 66, no.1 (Spring 2007): 2-3.

[3] Edgar Queeny, Prairie Wings: Pen and Camera Flight Studies (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1946), 19.

[4] Steven Teske, “Rice Industry”, The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net.

[5] Mr. Fuller went back to Louisiana, bought rice seed, a well rig, well materials and loads down his car and returned to Lonoke, AR to plant the seed. (W.H. Fuller, “Early Rice Farming on Grand Prairie,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 14.1 (Spring 1955): 74.

[6] Queeny, 17.

[7] Lion Oil Company, Looking at …Lion Oil Company (El Dorado, AR: s.n., 1951), 8. Vertical file “Studies, Folder Looking at … Lion Oil Company,” Butler Center for Arkansas, Little Rock, AR.

[8] The White River Wildlife Refuge was officially designated in 1935 to among other things, provide optimum habitat for migratory birds consistent with the overall objectives of the Mississippi Flyway.

[9] Cook’s Lake was once known as Lake Adams in a Deed referring to the area around the current Cook’s Lake. The Deed was issued to Zadck (Zadok?) P. Cook from the United States on June 6, 1859. Reference to the section, township and range can be found in the vertical file “Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge” at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

[10] T.M. Martin was the President of Lion Oil from 1946-1967, while Col. T.H. Barton was the former President (1922-1946), Chairman of the Board and founder of Lion Oil Company. “Col. Barton had grown up in modest beginnings and had built up his company through the oil boom that sprung up in El Dorado in the 1920s. He was a veteran of World War I and had gained the rank of colonel while in the Texas National Guard.” (Carolyn Kent, “Uncle Sam Needs Your Resources: A History of the Ozark Ordinance Plant” South Arkansas Historical Journal 5 (2005): 4.)

[11] “Margaret McGuire to Lion Oil Co. 9-3-1947.” Vertical file “Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge,” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.

[12] Marlon Mowdy, “Determination of Eligibility: Cook’s Lake Hunting Lodge” Vertical File “Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge,” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.

[13] Local lore, states that one of the CEOs of Lion Oil Company came to the lodge one night to find an unofficial company party taking place within the lodge by those members of the company who were employees of the property. Upon finding the party declared that he didn’t smoke, did not drink, and had no need for women at his age, he therefore stated that “I guess I’ll sell the Place” and thus, quickly the party was over.” It is unknown when or if this actually happened. What is known is that Lion Oil sold the property in 1967.

[14] Marlon Mowdy, “History of the [the]sic Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook’s Lake,” “Determination of Eligibility: Cook’s Lake Hunting Lodge” Vertical File “Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge,” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

SIGNIFICANCE

With this great example of a hunting lodge along the Mississippi flyaway zone near the duck hunting capitol of the world, the Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its association with the historic cultural sporting for ducks between c.1955 and 1964.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. “Winter provides bountiful hunting opportunities in TheNatural State.” The Blytheville Courier News, 27 October 1991, 22.

Kent, Carolyn. “Uncle Sam Needs Your Resources: A History of the Ozark Ordinance Plant” South Arkansas Historical Journal 5 (2005): 4-19.

Lion Oil Company, Looking at …Lion Oil Company. (El Dorado, AR: s.n., 1951), 8. Vertical file“Studies, Folder Looking at … Lion Oil Company,” Butler Center for Arkansas, Little Rock, AR.

Marlon Mowdy, “Determination of Eligibility: Cook’s Lake Hunting Lodge” Vertical File “Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge,” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mowdy, Marlon. “History of the [the]sic Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook’s Lake” “Determination of Eligibility: Cook’s Lake Hunting Lodge” Vertical File “Lion Oil Company Duck Hunting Lodge,” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Queeny, Edgar. Prairie Wings: Pen and Camera Flight Studies. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1946.

Stith, Matthew. “Women Locked the Doors, Children Screamed, and Men Trembled in Their Boots”: Black Bears and People of Arkansas. Arkansas Historical Quarterly Journal 66, no.1 (Spring 2007): 2-3.

Teske, Steven. “Rice Industry.” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net.

Margaret McGuire to Lion Oil Co. 9-3-1947.” Vertical file “Lion Oil Company Duck HuntingLodge,” Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.