Monte Ne

I was attending a training class in Arkansas recently. One of the guys sitting next to me was telling me about this place out on Beaver Lake called Monte Ne. I was needless to say, very intrigued as he told me more about it. After class got done one evening, I hopped in the car and headed over, as it was only 10-15 minutes away.

Monte Ne was a resort area started in the early 1900s by a William "Coin" Harvey. I'll provide some links below for a lot more detail. I won't go into much here, as it's a long story. Suffice to say, the man built this resort. It included a beautiful hotel, a large log structure with a concrete tower on one end, and an Roman style outdoor ampitheater. It was on a small lagoon that had gondola boats to meet you at the train station and shuttle you to the hotel and ampitheater. It was a large scale operation.

Anyhow, funds dried up and the place eventually closed down. In the early 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers dammed up the area and created a flood control reservoir. The ampitheater was completely submerged, as was a lot of the grounds. All that still stands is the large concrete tower, a fireplace chimney, a large concrete structure by the lake, and William "Coin" Harvey's tomb. The tomb was dragged to it's current location when the Army Corps cleared out all cemeteries in the flood area. In the last 40+ years, the ampitheater has surfaced on occasion when the water table drops enough. I was lucky enough to get a picture of just the top row. On some of the sites I link to below, you can see pictures of the ampitheater in the 60s and in recent "surface" years.

The worst part about this is all the grafitti and vandalism, but I guess that's to be expected with a place like this. Enjoy the pictures.

For more info, try these two links...

GPS Coordinates
36° 17' 08" N
94° 04' 01" W

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