In 1954 the Army Corps of Engineers straightened a stretch of the Arkansas River by cutting a channel across Holla Bend Bottoms, on the river's Trail of Tears water route. The cut left an island of farmland between the old and new channels. Up to sixty-five families had worked that land in the early 1900s, but farmers had already left after the floods of 1927, 1936 and 1937. The land passed to the Department of the Interior in 1957 and became Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge, now about 7,000 acres in Pope and Yell counties. The old river bend still bounds it as an oxbow.
The refuge is a stopover on the Central and Mississippi flyways. In winter fourteen species of ducks and four of geese come, with as many as 100,000 birds on the refuge at one time. The refuge counts 236 species of birds, and bald eagles are seen year-round and most often in winter and early spring. Tree frogs and American alligators live here too. Wildlife comes first by law, and limited hunting and fishing are allowed under special rules.
Visitors can drive a self-guided tour on fourteen miles of roads. Along it are an observation tower and two short walks, the 0.74-mile Levee Nature Trail and the 0.39-mile Lodge Lake Trail. To reach the entrance from Dardanelle, take Arkansas 7 south and then Arkansas 155 south about four miles.
The closest stops worth working into your route