Data, Facts & Maps

PDF Map 545 KB
8.5x11  

Wedington Unit came into existence under Franklin Delano Roosevelt when economic depression was at its worst.  Under Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, 30 emergency agencies were set up within a few months for the purpose of coping with the Depression.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created in 1937 to provide relief for young, unemployed men. 

The CCC provided unforeseen opportunity for the Forest Service to employ some of the out-of-work labor force to perform desperately needed labor-intensive activities on the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests.  Initially, sixteen camps were set up on the Ouachita, and nine on the Ozark National Forests, each with 200 men.

By 1935, the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS) also administered CCC camps.  In addition, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), established in 1935, was involved on national forest lands.  The large contributions of money and manpower made available by these Depression era programs provided administrative improvements such as building roads and bridges, permanent recreation facilities, equipment depots, lookout towers, and ranger stations (Bass 1981).

In 1937, Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act to provide for the relocation of poor farmers from sub marginal lands.  The program was managed by the SCS.  The region was mostly over-cultivated pasture and cropland, stripped of game and woodlands.  All of the buildings were made with timber and stone taken directly from the site. The Forest Service, working with the SCS, established the Magazine Mountain, Boston Mountain, and Wedington Land Utilization Projects and transformed them from poor farmlands to forest cover.  In 1937 and 1940, President Roosevelt transferred the Boston Mountain Land Utilization Project to the Ozark National Forest (USDA

FS 1966).  Eventually, in 1954, the Wedington and four other land utilization projects were transferred from the SCS to the Ozark National Forest to administer until the Secretary of Agriculture could dispose of these lands (Bass 1981).

Another partnership was begun in 1988.  After 50 years of use, the area needed major repairs.  A group of volunteers formed Friends of Lake Wedington to restore the abandoned cabins.  With the Forest Service, the organization continues to refurbish the buildings and update the facilities.  Many of these volunteers are direct descendents of the original CCC workers who built the area and buildings.

The Wedington area is mostly a mountainous type area with bottomlands near the Illinois River.  The area is dominated by hardwood oak species with a few pine stands scattered throughout.  The area also has many field systems that provide habitat for small game animals, and birds.

The Wedington unit has also been established as a Cooperative Wildlife Management Area through partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.  The partnership will improve area wildlife habitat by assisting with management practices such as prescribe burning, habit restoration, fescue eradication and the planting of cool season and warm season grasses. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will assist in land use and give wildlife special designation, restricting some hunting and motorized vehicle use until wildlife species can gain a better foothold in the area.  

Restaurants, gas stations, bait stores, and checkstations can be found closer to town by heading towards Fayetteville on east hwy. 16, Siloam Springs on west hwy. 16 or Tontitown and Springdale on east hwy, 412.