Outside of the National Parks and National Forests, our government frequently used the term “redeeming the land from the wilderness” in justifying western expansion. But exploring the Ouachita National Forest (pronounced Washita) it feels the other way around, as if “the wilderness redeems us.” It offers a refuge for the rekindling of the human spirit. Every hill, every valley, every stream is in the natural state it was hundreds of years ago. They melt away the cares of this world and fill us with delight, wonder and awe. Travelers through this exquisite area should build memories of this visual kaleidoscope in slide shows, picture albums and video on Vimeo or YouTube of the landscapes that should survive in perpetuity to their children and grandchildren. Posterity can then gaze on the same landscapes far into the future. Every American needs to experience this. Since we are collective owners of all the national forests, we should at least visit them, especially this one.

America’s oldest national forest in the southern United States and the oldest area in the national park system are both in Arkansas and both next to each other. Hot Springs National Park sits within the Ouachita National Forest in south central Arkansas. When you go to the mountain overlooking downtown Hot Springs Arkansas, you are looking at a mountain that is in the Ouachita National Forest. There is history behind the beauty of this area that makes it most interesting. The visitor needs to feel the experience of seeing and touching it.

President Andrew Jackson set aside the Hot Springs Reservation on April 20, 1832 “to be preserved for future recreation”. This was 40 years before Yellowstone became the first national park in 1872. Hot spring water which flows from the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain at a rate of 700,000 gallons a day and at a temperature of 143 degrees F provide bath houses and spigots for the public with water that supposedly has healing and medicinal qualities. A spa town sprung up around this location and was incorporated in 1851. The city became the first to host spring training for professional baseball. The Chicago White Stockings, the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburg Pirates, the Boston Red Sox and various other professional and semi-professional teams came here from 1880 to 1940. The Hot Springs Convention Center displays over 200 photos of various hall of famers and famous baseball players from those years. Horse racing at Oaklawn Park Racetrack began in 1905. Illegal gambling was rampant in those days until a less than honorable mayor took office in 1926 promising legalized gambling. He was in office from 1926 until 1948 and Hot Springs was a haven for mobsters from across the country. Al Capone, Frank Costello, Bugsy Moran and Lucky Luciano were, among others, frequent visitors to Hot Springs.

There’s no better place to begin a journey into one of the most beautiful and enjoyable of our national forests than Hot Springs. Traveling a short distance from the 5,500-acre Hot Springs National Park into the 1.8 million-acre Ouachita National Forest takes less than a minute. The Ouachita is over 2800 square miles in size and if it were a perfect square would be approximately 53 miles in length on each side. But this national forest stretches from Perryville Arkansas south to Hot Springs west to Broken Bow Oklahoma and north to Talihina Oklahoma and back east to Perryville. Six locations within the Ouachita, totaling 65,000 acres, have been designated as wilderness areas. There are hiking trails that range in length from one mile to the 192-mile Ouachita National Recreational Trail which traverses the entire forest from east to west. They vary in degree of difficulty from the most primitive wilderness trails to the paved interpretive trails. The best time to visit this area is in the autumn. Every color in the rainbow is represented, along with others that both inspire and amaze. The beauty of the landscape takes your breath away.

Contained in this area designated as Ouachita National Forest in 1907 are the Cossatot (translated “skull crusher”) State Park & Cossatot Falls, Shady Lake Park, Bard Springs, Brushy Creek, Crystal, Albert Pike, Bard Springs, Collier Springs, Charlton, Lake Ouachita Vista, Camp Clearfork, South Fourche, Iron Springs, Knoppers Ford, Jack Creek, Lake Sylvia, Fourche Mountain, Little Missouri Falls, Dutch Creek, Little Pines, Big Brushy, Shirley Creek, Rocky Shoals, Fulton Branch, Dragover, River Bluff, Wolf Pen Gap, Scenic Byway, Queen Wilhelmina State Park and Rich Mountain, all in Arkansas. In Oklahoma there is the Military Road, Horsethief Springs, Winding Stair Mountains, Indian Nations National Wildlife Area, Beech Creek, Cedar Lake, Billy Creek, Talimena Scenic Drive, Winding Stair Mountain, Pipe Springs and Beavers Bend National Park.

Arkansas State Representative Osro Cobb attempted to turn Ouachita forest into a national park in 1926 and he described the area this way in a magazine article, “a visitor standing upon one of the many majestic peaks in the area of the proposed park is thrilled by a panoramic view that cannot be had elsewhere in the South-Central States. With cheeks flushed by the invigorating mountain breezes, the mountain climber is rewarded by an inspiring view of countless and nameless peaks, mountain groups, dense forests, and inviting valleys, all merging into the distant horizon. … there are many mountain streams, now moving slowly in narrow but deep pools, then churning with savage ferocity down some water-worn precipice, leaving in its wake snow-white sprays … fed by crystal springs and like so much molten silver these streams flow their turbulent courses unappreciated and rarely visited.“

This forest and the land have been here since the dawn of time. First inhabited by ancient peoples whose names are unknown, then by Native Americans known as the Caddo and Tula who were visited by Spain’s Hernando de Soto’s expedition in 1541. French trappers and explorers followed soon after and then it was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 at a cost at a cost of 3 cents per acre. This national forest has everything the traveler, hiker, biker and camper could want including mountains, lakes, rivers, wildlife, streams, falls, rapids, fishing, hiking trails, equestrian trails, biking trails, shooting ranges, camping sites and scenic drives in pine, oak and hickory forests cumulating into one of the most entertaining and beautiful places in the country. Its mountains include Mount Magazine, the highest point in the Ouachitas at 2,753 feet in Logan County Arkansas. The world’s tallest hill, Cavanal Hill, at 1,999 feet is near Poteau Oklahoma. These mountains have hundreds of streams, rapids and waterfalls that are not found in the maps of the area. In the early 1930s the Civilian Concentration Corps built trails, railroad trestles, dams, cabins, restrooms, camping spots and roads at various places in the Ouachita that don’t encroach on the splendor of nature. There are many of these structures standing today.

The Ouachita has two scenic drives, Scenic 7 Byway winding for 290 miles within the state of Arkansas and Talimena Scenic Drive which follows the tops of mountain ridges for 54 miles through Arkansas and Oklahoma. Hiking trails follow most of the route.

William Rainey, a nationally known photographer, has been capturing images of this scenic forest for over 30 years. His photography captures breathtaking vistas and landscapes that are off the grid. These natural landscapes should be in our collective consciousness, the same as honesty, integrity, good will, charity and citizenship.

What Theodore Roosevelt stated about the Grand Canyon can be stated about this magnificent Ouachita National Forest. Roosevelt said, “keep the great wonder of nature as it now is, leave it as it is. You cannot improve it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. What you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children and for all that come after you, which every American, if they can travel at all, should see.”

Make your family’s travel plans today and start making memories. You are a joint owner, after all.