Store/Cafe at Devil’s Den State Park, AR


West Fork, AR

Overlooking Devil Lake Dam on Lee Creek

We had planned to stay at Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas in February of this year, but the arctic blast put the kibosh on that plan. Later in the year, Kate had read that the road to Devil’s Den was windy and not easily navigated by large RVs. It was probably fortunate that we did not go there in February because roads were also icy.

Panorama of the dam, Devil’s Lake, and the store

Since Devil’s Den is only about thirty minutes from Lake Fort Smith State Park, we stopped in for part of a day to check it out. The state park information page is here. If you have a PDF reader, you can see the park brochure here. Kate wanted to get postcards, but the store was closed.

Devil’s Den State Park was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in 1933. The park buildings are constructed from native stone construction, which is common for CCC parks. Also, the CCC statue, reunion name list, and informational signs make this pretty clear. Sadly, there is no good story about why it is called Devil’s Den. The best guess is that it is due to the caves.

In 1937, the dam was built to add a swimming area to the state park. If you read the fine print, you will see that the Devil’s Den CCC company had a newsletter named the “Voice of Satan”.

If you made it this far, here is a secret. There is a turtle in the panorama at the top of the page. Can you find it? (Hint: If you click on the image, you will get a larger version of it to zoom in on.)

Video panorama of the dam, Devil’s Lake, and the store

And of course, the obligatory photograph up Kate’s nose in a scenic place … uh … I mean selfie.

, ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *