Van Winkle Trail

Van Winkle Trail HDR
(Canon 1D Mk III, 24-105mm lens, 3 exposure HDR)

Van Winkle Village HDR
(Canon 1D Mk III, 24-105mm lens, 3 exposure HDR)

Little Clifty Creek HDR
(Canon 1D Mk III, 24-105mm lens, 3 exposure HDR)

Zebra Swallowtail
(Canon 1D Mk III, 24-105mm lens)

Around 1850 Peter Van Winkle built a small mill east of Rogers, AR on the Little Clifty Creek. The mill was one of the most productive in the area after the Civil War providing lumber for rebuilding Fayetteville. It was also the principle source of lumber for the famous "Old Main" building on the University of Arkansas.

The mill grew into a small village with hotel, store, blacksmith shop and dwellings which were active until the early 1900s. Peter Van Winkle died from a stroke in downtown Rogers in 1882.

An archeological excavation of the community was started in 1997 by the University of Arkansas. The area has new been developed into a two part trail in the newly developing Hobbs State Park and Conservation Area. The village and ruins are part of a well developed 1 mile trail north of highway 12. On the South side of highway there is a 5 or 6 mile nature trail that is basically an overgrown trail with very little improvement.

This area is typical of the hardwood forests covering most of N.W. Arkansas. The very dense foliage is difficult to photograph due to the extreme range of light from the sunny areas to the dark shadows. These photographs were produced by taking three different hand-held exposures which were later combined using Photomatix HDR software.