St Francis County High Point Trip Report

five unnamed areas on Crowley's Ridge on Madison and Witter quadrangles (450+ ft)

Date: September 29, 2001
Author: Hans Haustein

The highpoint areas of St Francis County are located on ridge of wind blown silt (a.k.a. loess) called Crowley's Ridge. The highpoint areas are near the community of Newcastle. Newcastle is reached by taking exit 242 off of I-40 near Forrest City and driving about 7 miles north on Highway 284 to its intersection with county road SFC 284. Turn east on SFC 284 (paved) and drive 0.7 mile.

A large red building that has the name Eugene L Horton written above the store front is located by a drive on the left (north) to the owner's house (I did not get his name). Two highpoint areas are located in a pasture behind the house. The owner was very pleasant and allowed me access to the areas. The western most of the two areas is located near a large oak tree in the pasture and the eastern area is located near a cow pen. I could not determine which of the areas were higher.

The next highpoint areas are reached by driving east on SFC 284 for 0.5 miles to a drive on the left (north) side of the road. The mailbox address is 1211 SFC 284. The drive serves two houses and passes by an orchard. There is a brown house half way up the drive and a brick house at the end of the drive. The brick house is closer to the highpoint areas but no one was home when I was there. I went back to the brown house and asked the lady there (did not get her name) if I could walk through her back yard to the wooded area to access the highpoint areas. She didn't have a problem with what I was doing. Southern one of the two highpoints is pretty large and mostly wooded. The highest area was hard to determine; one candidate area is near the brick house.

The BM 455 is located at the northern end of this 450-foot contour and is actually in Village Creek State Park. To reach the BM follow a dirt trace that begins near the back of the brick house and follow it north, parts of the trace were planted as feed lots for deer hunting. The trace ends at the fence line for the state park. The BM is just across the fence.

The second northern highpoint is reached by following the state park fence line eastward until it intersects a road trace that goes in an easterly direction. The trace goes down into a saddle before going up again to the ridge top. The highpoint area straddles the state park fence line. The middle part of the area seemed to be the highest. There were several tree stands in the area, so in hunting season one needs to proceed with caution. There looks to be some pretty good views to the east during leaf-off. Returning back to my vehicle I walked past the brick house. Next to the house the ridge line had been cleared of trees. There were some great views to the east. I talked again to the lady that I had asked for permission, and she said that you could see Memphis on a clear night. Wow!

The fifth area is reached by returning to SFC 284 and driving east. A little east of the drive intersection with SFC 284, the road becomes gravel and begins its descent of Crowley's Ridge. SFC 284 ends at the intersection with SFC 443 and SFC 442 about 0.5 mile from the last drive. Stay left (north) and drive about 0.8 mile. This road skirts the edge of a field at the base of Crowley's Ridge. Park along the edge of this road. The easiest way to access this point is to follow the drainage to the west of a small, intermittent stream. It is about 0.4 mile from the road snaking along the drainage and up the steep sides of the ravine to highpoint area. The highpoint area is an east-west trending area. The highest point seems to be near a large stump. I left a opaque film canister there with a register inside at the base of the stump. It also appears that there are pretty good views during leaf-off. Access to this area is entirely in Village Creek State Park.