Once Upon a Time at Beaver Lake: The Lost Valley Beneath the Water

 Once Upon a Time at Beaver Lake

a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads – Art and Other Odd Adventures

Dear Henry,

Once upon a time, before there was a lake, before the bassboats and the campsites and the long looping drive, the valley where Beaver Lake now sits looked completely different.

Fish and I were circling the lake this weekend, admiring the bursts of fall color, when I started thinking about how young the lake really is. It’s easy to forget that the quiet water and these curving roads weren’t always here. Once upon a time, this whole place was a patchwork of farms, hollows, ferries, dusty roads, and the old White River twisting through the hills like a BMW that refused to stay in its lane.

In those days, the White River was restless. Every spring, it rose with the ire of a Hera waking up on the wrong side of the bed. The floods came again and again, in 1898, 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1911, each one sweeping across the bottomlands, washing out fence lines, barns, ferry crossings, and sometimes entire livelihoods. Families rebuilt because that’s what Ozarks families do, but the river always reminded them who was really in charge.

Just down from where Highway 94 runs now, there was even a little resort town named Monte Ne, dreamed up by a brilliant, eccentric man named William “Coin” Harvey. He built hotel towers, a lagoon, and boat canals, and even laid the foundation for a giant “pyramid” he hoped future civilizations would discover after his own collapsed. It sounds like fiction, but it was all real, and most of it is now resting under the lake.

Around other bends of the river stood scattered homesteads, orchards, small fields, churchyards, ferry points, and forgotten roadbeds, all of them lived-in and loved. When the government finally decided to tame the river with a system of dams, the land was acquired, the houses were relocated or dismantled, and the families were relocated to an area uphill. It was the end of one story and the slow beginning of another.

Then, construction began in 1960, and by 1966, Beaver Dam had held back the White River for the first time, allowing the water to rise and spread into the deep lake we know today.

And a whole landscape disappeared under the surface.

Now, when we drive the loop around Beaver Lake, it’s easy to feel like we’re traveling along a shadow of what came before. The Ozarks have a way of layering their stories: old hills, young lake, new roads.

 History beneath beauty. Memory beneath water.

Once upon a time, this place looked nothing like it does now.

And yet, driving beside the lake in the Fall, it feels as if all its old stories are still here, whispering from under the water.

Until next time,

a.d. elliott

PS: Don't forget to check out my YouTube for this adventure - https://youtu.be/_9RjH4CXnP4

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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller based in Tontitown, Arkansas.

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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