Devil's Den State Park

Devil's Den State Park was created on October 13, 1933, and the first Civilian Conservation Corps company, men from North Dakota, moved in a week later, on October 20. Their first project was a gravel road to Devil's Den, later Arkansas 170. They went on to build the first hiking trails, log-and-stone cabins, campgrounds, offices, a restaurant and a stone dam across Lee Creek, finished on April 1, 1937. Trail, road and building work continued until the corps disbanded in 1942. The whole park was listed as a National Historic District in 1994, and the state describes it as one of the most intact CCC sites in the country.

The park lies in the Lee Creek valley in the Boston Mountains, on about 2,200 acres. Its sandstone crevice area holds about sixty crevice caves, and Devil's Den Cave is the longest, reaching 550 feet into the hillside. The area went on the Natural Heritage Commission's registry in 1982. Big Ear Cave shelters hibernating Ozark big-eared bats and is closed to visitors. The dam, an 8-acre fishing lake behind it, was damaged by floodwater on April 24, 2004, and the old log-and-stone bridge across the creek washed away in a flood.

The park is at 11333 West Arkansas Highway 74 in West Fork. Yellow Rock Trail climbs to a view of the Lee Creek valley, the Butterfield Hiking Trail makes a 15-mile loop, and Fossil Flats was the first mountain bike trail in the Arkansas state parks. There are 18 cabins with kitchens and fireplaces, many from the CCC era, and 107 campsites.