Price Services, Inc. of Monticello previously owned the property. The two parties agreed on a $4.5-million sale price - about half of the appraised value - with the state paying only about $1.2 million of the total cost. A $300,000 grant from the North American Wetland Conservation Act was vital to the commission's ability to buy the property.

The AGFC also used $2.3 million in Pittman-Robertson funds administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to offset the cost, according to AGFC director Hugh Durham. With other contributions, the agency's cost was about $1.2 million. “We’re not only being good stewards of the environment, but also of Arkansas’ finances,” Durham said.

“We were able to buy Choctaw Island because of the conservation sales tax. Since it went into effect, the tax has allowed us to buy 16,000 acres of habitat for public use at a cost of about $13 million. This is before Choctaw Island,” he explained.

The AGFC receives 45 percent, or about $20 million a year, of the one-eighth-of-one-cent tax proceeds, sharing the rest with the Department of Parks and Tourism, 45 percent, the Department of Heritage, nine percent, and Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission, one percent.

John Price and Dick Carmical of Price Services, Inc. were on hand to sign over the acreage to the AGFC. “We bought the property in 1993 as a recreational property investment. The public has been using the lakes for quite some time and it just makes more sense that the commission take over ownership as a public use area,” Price said. “It gives access to an area that the public can use without belonging to a very expensive hunting club,” Carmical added. 

The acreage represents some of the most ecologically significant and productive habitat in the state. It is regarded as prime area for hunting, fishing and valuable habitat for the endangered least tern. Although the purchase of the property has been completed, the area will not be open to public use until the agency develops a management plan for the area. An existing hunting lease on the property is being honored through the remainder of 2001.

A land exchange of 320 acres within the Cut-Off Creek Wildlife Management Area in Drew County from the commission to Price and a 127-acre tract adjoining Seven Devils WMA to the commission from Price is also part of the purchase agreement.

The Choctaw land includes Kate Adams Lake and two others referred to as the Pothole Lakes, plus three or four smaller lakes, said Carmical. Although the land has been used to harvest timber, Carmical said harvesting has been done with wildlife in mind. Mast-producing trees were not cut, with about 1,200 acres of cropland returned to timber production.