Marble Falls, Arkansas

Marble Falls is an unincorporated community in Newton County, Arkansas, United States. It lies along Arkansas's National Scenic 7 Bywaybetween Harrison and Jasper. The Marble Falls Post Office is located in the parking lot of the now defunct theme park called Dogpatch USA. For a time, the town was known as Dogpatch to promote the theme park.

Marble Falls is part of the Harrison Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Settlement

A Choctaw Indian named Ah-Che-To-Mah was the first settler known to have acquired title to land in the vicinity of Marble Falls. The waterfall once supplied power for a flour mill, cotton gin, and a saw mill. Peter Beller built the original water-powered grist mill there about 1840, and this mill was later rebuilt and remodeled by several different owners. The community was originally named Marble City, after the marble that was quarried nearby. A block of marble quarried by Peter Beller and his cousins is part of the Washington Monument. Marble City became known as a health resort in the 1880s, through the advertisements of businessmen such as Dr. Silas Scruggs Stacey, proprietor of the Stacey family store and provider of Dr. S. S. Staceys Sulpher Mountain Bitters which sold briskly for $1 per bottle.

Post office

The first post office was established September 24, 1883, and the first postmaster, Mander Wilcockson, officially re-named the community Wilcockson. Absalom C. Phillips,a local preacher, added the cotton gin about 1890. After 1900, the town began to fade away, and the mills and gin were destroyed sometime in the early 1900s. By 1915, many began to leave the area due to economic depression. Albert Raney, Sr., who became postmaster in 1934, had the official name changed to Marble Falls.^[1]

Dogpatch, USA

See also: Dogpatch USA

The area was known by that name until 1966 when the Raney property was purchased by the developers of Dogpatch USA. Orvil Faubus, Governor and some developers had the area's postal designation changed to Dogpatch, and it would appear that way on highway maps. The theme park closed in 1993, and in 1997 the citizens of the area voted unanimously to change the postal designation back to Marble Falls, the name it has today.

See also

• Mystic Caverns and Crystal Dome

External Links

• Newton County Historical Society

References

1. ^ Lackey, Walter F. History of Newton County, Arkansas, Point Lookout, MO: S of O Press, 1950.

Coordinates: 36°06′24″N 93°07′56″W / 36.10678°N 93.13221°W / 36.10678; -93.13221