1967 Map of Crocketts Bluff

About this map

Crocketts Bluff sits perched above a dramatic bend in the White River, anchoring a landscape defined by the shifting hydrology of the Grand Prairie and the Arkansas Delta. In the late 1960s, this region was a complex network of oxbow lakes, sloughs, and bayous, including the expansive Maddox Bay and the intricately winding Hill Bayou. The map reveals the vital intersection of agriculture and conservation, where the cultivated fields of Crockett and Prairie meet the dense bottomland hardwoods of the White River National Wildlife Refuge. Traces of rural community life are preserved through the locations of the Hopewell School and Hopewell Church in the south, alongside the Lutheran Cemetery. Ingenuity in water management is evident through the numerous siphons, flumes, and the Tarleton Ditch, which supported the local rice and soybean farms on the terrace lands above the river's floodplain.