Twenty miles west of Hot Springs on 270 is the lovely cool swimming hole at Charlton Recreational Area, a good place to stop, for a bathroom break and a picnic lunch. Across Hwy 270 from Charlton Recreational Area is Camp Clearfork, a group use recreational area, built by the CCC, just over half a mile up Clearfork Trail. It is owned by the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, and located in the Ouachita National Forest. This group camp is used seasonally, April to October, by many organisations, clubs, Scouts, for summer camps, weekend retreats, a meeting place for nature and bird enthusiasts, etc. photos You tube From Crystal Springs on 270 the camp entrance is located about 2.6 miles further west, half way between Hot Springs and Mt. Ida. (Womble Ranger District, Mount Ida, AR 71957. Phone: (870) 867-2101)
Facilities: Six rustic dormitory cabins, three staff cabins, dining hall with full kitchen facilities and recreation building. Central bathhouse with flush toilets and warm showers, ball field. Some facilities are accessible to the physically challenged. 30 day minimum advance reservations plus deposit. User’s fee charged. Camp Clear Fork Lake is a small reservoir on Walnut Creek in Garland County, Arkansas and is used for recreation purposes e.g., Swimming, fishing and canoeing. It has been been there since 1938. It has a normal surface area of 13 acres. Camp Clearfork Lake Dam, is rock fill, height is 22 feet with a length of 195 feet. Maximum discharge is 60 cubic feet per second. 20 miles west of Hot Springs on U.S. 270. Address: Clearfork Trail, Royal, AR 71968. The ten buildings, road in, playl field, dam and lake stocked with catchable channel catfish, staff and caretaker’s buildings, kitchen, cabins and bathhouses with flush toilets that compose the Camp Clearfork Historic District were constructed by members of the 741st Company of the Arkansas CCC District stationed at the Crystal Springs Camp. This complex, constructed circa 1936- 1938, still serves as a public recreational area within Ouachita National Forest (ONF), functioned purely as a recreational facility, as it continues to do today.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places on 10/21/93 Section 6 T3S R
22W Fifth Principal Meridian
map
The Camp Clearfork Campground is located on U.S. Hwy. 270 in Garland County.
There are a total of fourteen structures and one site with a the camp complex
boundaries. The structures are divided into six different types: the
contributing structures include a dam, four cabins #5, 6, 9, 10, Desoto Hall
#14, two staff cabins #2, #12 one with a hipped roof and the other has a gabled
roof, a rectangular caretakers house #11 set atop stone columns and has six over
six windows on all sides, one bay central front porch, and two restroom /
bathhouse buildings #3, 8, on concrete foundations. The women's has a hipped
roof. men's gabled roof, with the associated lake constituting the contributing
site. The non-contributing buildings include two cabins #4, 7 and the recreation
hall #13 all constructed c. 1950 are sympatric in style . On approximately 21
acres.
GARLAND COUNTY
Camp Clearfork Dam, ca. 1935, Crystal Springs
Camp Clearfork Buildings 1, 2, and 11, ca. 1940, Crystal Springs
Camp Clearfork Shawnee, #5Mohawk, and #6Choctaw Cabins, ca. 1940, Crystal
Springs
Camp Clearfork Men's Restrooms/Bath, ca. 1940, Crystal Springs
Camp Clearfork Cabin 5, ca. 1940, Crystal Springs
Camp Clearfork Caretaker's House, ca. 1940, Crystal Springs
Camp Clearfork DeSoto Hall, ca. 1940, Crystal Springs
Charlton Bathhouse, ca. 1938, near Mount Ida
Charlton Spillway/Dam, ca. 1938, near Mount Ida
Official annual, 1937 / Arkansas District, Civilian Conservation Corps, Seventh
Corps area.
World Cat.
Author: Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.). Arkansas District. 173 pages :
illustrations, portraits ; 31 cm. Includes index. Pub Info: Baton Rouge, La. : Direct Advertising
Co., 1937.
Check with host across way to check in. Charlton has a campground host.
The lake is stocked with channel catfish. From informational
signs at Camp Clearfork.
A little something for the fish.
Walnut Creek flows into Clearfork Lake and life on the food chain is
fast and tenuous. There is a lot to choose from on the bend. Notice some of
these life forms around Clearfork Lake and Walnut Creek. Creeks and lakes are
home to hundreds of kinds of small aquatic insects. Blacklily larvae, Mayfly
nymphs, Gilled snail, crawdads, water snakes, fishing spider, belted kingfisher,
green frog, shiner, Blackspotted top minnow. Stream surveys increase our
knowledge of aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic protection projects such as fish
passages at road crossings and habitat improvements improve our streams and
waterways.
Lagemouth bass occur in nearly all of Arkansas waters, and is
the most popular game fish in Arkansas and probably the most important
freshwater game fish in the US.
Channel catfish is the most widespread and abundant catfish
in the state. Individual fish can weigh up to 30lbs. Their abundance is a result
of their ability to tolerate a variety of water conditions. Millions are
produced in state hatcheries each year. Most often feeding on or near the
bottom., they can be either successful scavengers or predators, feeding on just
about anything.
Bluegill is one of the most popular game fish in Arkansas, and is widely
stocked. Commonly referred to as "bream," with the largest populations found in
clear, quiet, warm waters. Bluegills often move in schools, feeding at various
depths on crustaceans, insects and small fish.
Green sunfish is a native fish and can thrive in areas where other sunfish can
not and are most abundant in small creeks and ponds that will not support other
sunfish. Often a "pioneering " species, they are the first species to repopulate
newly created water bodies. Its food consists mainly of aquatic insects, small
fish and crayfish.
Longear sunfish, a native statewide, their small size makes them less sought
after by anglers. They are most abundant in small, clear, upland streams with
rocky bottoms and permanent or semi permanent flow, feeding mainly on aquatic
and terrestrial insects and other invertebrates.
Dining Hall #14 Desoto Hall. This irregularly shaped structure has a low pitched roof covered with composition shingles, sides are covered with board-and-batten siding and has two large chimneys at either end. Has multiple windows on all sides.
Cabins Four cabins #5, 6, 9, 10 built by the CCC are on rock columns, elevated off the ground. The buildings are rectangular with gabled roof with front screened porches and a rear "T." The structures are covered with board-and-batten siding. Dorm Cabins for 10 people. (6 units).
Playfield behind cabin.
Clearfork Lake
Beautiful workmanship. There is a short trail on the backside of the lake
started at the far side of the dam. A hiking trail did exist all the way around
the lake in the 1940s.
My favorite trail in the area is the easy
Charlton Trail, 4.3 miles, one way, from Crystal Springs Campground to
Charlton, in that direction, as you drop down into Charlton.
Impassable during high water. Clearfork Trail Road runs bedside Walnut Creek.
Try walking in
the dark with a black light and see what glows, maybe cobwebs, scorpions, or go
on an owl prowl the pre-recoded sound of a barred owl or go geo caching with a
hand held GPS or hold a class on Dutch oven cooking.
Explore nature take only
photographs. All these photos were taken in August 2019.