Arkansas
Rich Mountain Pioneer Cemetery
Pioneer Cemetery
The Pioneer Cemetery is only
100 feet or so off the Talimena
Scenic Drive a short distance
west of Queen Wilhelmina State
Park. Surrounded by a split rail
fence, it offers a sobering look
back at life on the mountain for
some of Arkansas' early settlers.
An interpretive panel guides visitors down
the short path to a pioneer cemetery.
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The stony soil atop Rich Mountain
seems an unlikely destination for
the settlers who migrated into this
area beginning in around 1860.
But during the last four decades of
the 19th century, a small, hard-
scrabble settlement developed
here.
Little remains today. The
settlement area has been
absorbed by the Ouachita National
Forest and the cabins are gone. An
occasional fruit tree or dressed
stone can still be found, but
otherwise only the Pioneer
Cemetery on the Talimena Scenic
Drive remains.
A total of 23 settlers are buried
here, although only one tombstone
is still legible. Other stones and
markers can be seen, however,
and a small rail fence surrounds
the grounds. The cemetery
provides a somber reminder of the
lives once lived out on Rich
Mountain.
To learn more about the legend of the Ghost
of the Rich Mountain Cemetery, please follow
this link:
Copyright 2006 by Dale A. Cox
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