Beavers Bend Haunted History

06/24/2025

On the banks of the Mountain Fork River in Beavers Bend sits this 1935 Fairbanks-Morse 3 horse single cylinder “hit and miss” type Z kerosene engine and belt driven water pump. This machine brought water from the river and pumped it uphill into a square concrete “clear” tank. From there it was gravity fed to the park’s original cabins. The park superintendent had the job of checking the level of the water holding tank and running the engine to keep the tank full enough for the parks guests. Most times this task was delegated to the superintendents teen age sons who also had to fuel and operate the gasoline powered generator that brought electricity to the original cabins. The generator only ran from dark for electric lighting and was turned off at 10pm.

01/16/2025

09/25/2024

Found this fossil in some limestone rocks in the driveway. Any ideas on what it might be? Not having much success with google lens.

09/03/2024

Photos by Savannah Willeby 9-2-24

08/27/2024

Today is a runoff election for county sheriff in McCurtain County. Be sure to go to the polls and vote. Good luck to the candidates.

06/18/2024

As a State Employee, I’m restricted in my ability to actively campaign for any candidate. I can give my opinion on who I think the best candidate would be. If you’re interested in my opinion, just reach out to me. Good luck to all of the candidates in today’s primary.

05/28/2024

Some more information regarding this Hochatown store. The land owner at the time this photo was taken was Doff Cress, he told me the original owner of the store and the native stone home he lived in was a man named Marion Thompson. Who Mr. Cress said built another “rock” home near the entrance to Beavers Bend at a later date. MT Thompson is listed in the 1940 census as being married to Irene, occupation as “Cattleman / Merchant” and the family had a maid, 22 year old Opal Rogers. Mr. Thompson was born in Arkansas in the late 1800s. When I asked Mr. Cress what kinds of merchandise Mr. Thompson sold in this store, he replied, “mostly moonshine!” Any other information about Mr. Thompson would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

04/03/2024

I’m still working on researching who this person was and how they got here. This has been determined to be a property boundary marker most likely from the mid to late 1800s. The arrow points to the property boundary line (there’s an old fence that designates a boundary that still exists) the number 6 designated the township (helps us date it to the 1800s because this township changed after it became part of Indian territory and originally was a part of Miller County Arkansas). The Roman numeral X designates the location as section 10) and SEK (although it looks like an X in this photo, it’s a K) designates it’s the Southeast corner of that section (used K instead of C for corner) and the M underneath designates a term used in surveying in that time period meaning “more or less”. I have a feeling this may have been allotted land but in reaching out to the Choctaw Nation they have no records of Alonzo Johnson. I have found an Alonzo Johnson in allotment records from the Cherokee tribe. And I’ve found a Thaddeus Alonzo Johnson who was from Arkansas and is buried in Battiest North of here. I’ve enlisted the help of the Arkansas historical folks but the don’t have many records for what is called “old Miller County” for the same reasons as McCurtain County doesn’t have any older records (both court houses that held property records were destroyed by fire long ago). I want to tell this persons story and have it displayed at our museum, so if anyone has the ability and desire to help, just send me a message and maybe we can work together to solve this mystery. Thank you

03/21/2024

Wildflowers in the Spring / Beavers Bend 3/20/24

03/21/2024

Petrified wood / Beavers Bend 3/20/24