Rush Historic District

Before there was a camp, Cherokee farmed along the Buffalo River, until the 1828 Treaty of Washington pressed the Western Cherokee in Arkansas to give it up. Then in the early 1880s prospectors arrived looking for lost silver mines said to figure in Indian legends. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says a smelter built on Rush Creek in 1886 ran its first test in January 1887 and gave off green zinc oxide fumes instead of silver. The Park Service dates the Morning Star Mine to 1885 and calls it the district's largest operation.

The camp grew past its limits. The Encyclopedia puts it near 5,000 people, while the Park Service's landscape report counts 2,000 to 3,000 at the peak. Zinc demand in World War I fed a boom from 1911 to 1918. Prices fell in 1919, the 1920 census found only 344 residents, and the last Morning Star mine closed in 1931. The post office lasted until the mid-1950s. The remaining townspeople advertised "Rush Ghost Town," and in 1972 the land became part of Buffalo National River.

Walkers can see the Taylor-Medley General Store, a blacksmith shop of 1925, the smelter and House Row, houses from about 1899, with a metal roof and open porch on each. The quarter-mile Morning Star Interpretive Loop starts at the small gravel lot. The Mine Level Trail climbs 1.5 miles past fenced mine entrances to the river access lot. Pets are not allowed, and the district has been on the National Register since 1987.