Old Beaver Lake Photos

[J-Doc]

Anyone have some old photos of Beaver Lake and it's history? This might be a fun thread to "thumbnail" at the top of the forum if we get enought photos.

Here's a few I found over the years on the internet.

Here is the old bridge and shows the old road bed that goes under the new Hwy12 bridge. My lake map shows an old cemetary just below the 12 bridge near the old river channel. I've not looked on my sonar for it but some guys with better downscan sonar might find it. It's probably too deep to get any photos showing gravestones and such. Plus the years of water exposure may have deteriorated the stones.

Old Photo of the dam construction. If you look close, you can get a good idea of the scale and magnitude of concrete required to hold back about 30,000 acres of WATER! :-)

[bfishn]

The steel structure of the old 12 bridge was removed for scrap prior to fill (as was anything else of value). There's still some concrete & stone though. There's a picture of what's left in The History of Benton County (Black).

The numerous cemetaries were all relocated. How do you move a cemetary? With a backhoe. I can only imagine that was kind of a gruesome job. The stones are all gone, now high & dry in other places.

The Rogers Historical Society has the best collection of pictures that I've seen. The UofA library has many more, but are far less accessable, with many stored in the Special Collections unit, and only viewable by appoinment and written request.

[Sore Thumbs]

Shiloh Museum in Springdale has a bunch of Beaver lake stuff I am told.

[J-Doc]

The steel structure of the old 12 bridge was removed for scrap prior to fill (as was anything else of value). There's still some concrete & stone though. There's a picture of what's left in The History of Benton County (Black).

The numerous cemetaries were all relocated. How do you move a cemetary? With a backhoe. I can only imagine that was kind of a gruesome job. The stones are all gone, now high & dry in other places.

The Rogers Historical Society has the best collection of pictures that I've seen. The UofA library has many more, but are far less accessable, with many stored in the Special Collections unit, and only viewable by appoinment and written request.

Thanks for the info. Glad to know they respected the graves by relocating them. I bet that was a tough job.

I'll try and check out the museum stuff one day this summer. Sounds interesting.

Anyone have any other photos they want to share?

[bfishn]

Here's a listing of the old cemetaries and where they were moved to;

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arnwags/cem/AR/benton/BeaverLake.htm

I've not seen a picture, but I've graphed and caught fish (in the winter) off of the old RR trestle pier in the WR channel between Monte Ne & Pine Top. Easy to find, just sweep the channel straight out from the narrow RR cut directly across from the entrance to Monte Ne, and just south of the cut-through by HB island.

Cool old story on that bridge... it was an extension from the spur that Coin Harvey ran to Monte Ne, and crossed the river to pickup lumber at Pine Top. Story goes that the bridge was so rickety that no one would ride the train across it. They stopped before crossing and the brakeman walked across the trestle. Then the engineer dropped the engine in a low forward speed and bailed off. The brakeman jumped on when the engine got across and stopped the train, and waited for the engineer to walk across.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I first fished Beaver in 68', I believe. A buddy and I made the trip from central OK to get in on the early bass fishing. After we got there it turned out that the bass fishing was slow and crappie fishing hot. We spent the whole time we were there crappie fishing. That was the only trip out of many for bass that I ended up crappie fishing.

[bfishn]

(After a tip from Sore Thumbs...)

The Shiloh Museum has a nice online collection, click "next" to advance to the next picture.

http://www.shilohmuseum.org/exhibits/beaver_lake_gallery.php

[Feathers and Fins]

You guys got me digging to pretty neat stuff http://www.rogersarkansas.com/museum/searchresults.asp?cx=009629333808878180748%3Asfawnion874&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=beaver+lake&sa=Search

[1969Larson]

Not Beaver Lake, but you gotta love this one... even has a recipe...

http://rogersarkansas.com/museum/photo/possumhunters.asp

[J-Doc]

Now these are cool photos. :-). Lots of forgotten history around this lake.

Not many know the very first B.A.S.S. tournament was held at n Beaver Lake. Bill Dance got second place on a plastic work and had the largest out board motor at the time (around 70hp I think).

Add in the lumber that was pulled out of Van Winkle Hollow to build "Old Main" at UofA, the old lumber mill that once existed out near Van Winkle also had a part in the Civil War I think.

And the old Prarrie Creek School foundation that's now under water and out near the channel where many pass over it and never know it was once there. Lots of interesting facts around this lake from before it was a lake.

Thanks for the photos!