Mount Magazine, officially named Magazine Mountain, is the highest point of the U.S. Interior Highlands and the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the site of Mount Magazine State Park.[3] It is a flat-topped mountain or mesa capped by hard rock and rimmed by precipitous cliffs. There are two summits atop the mountain: Signal Hill, which reaches 2,753 feet (839 m), and Mossback Ridge, which reaches 2,700 ft (823.0 m).
Mount Magazine is often called "the highest point between the Alleghenies and the Rockies" (there are mountains located in the Trans-Pecos region of far-west Texas which exceed Mount Magazine in elevation and prominence, although the Trans-Pecos region lies so far south of the Rockies, that region arguably does not lie "between" the Allegheny Mountains and the Rocky Mountains).
Etymology
According to English botanist Thomas Nuttall, writing in 1819, French hunters named the mountain "Magazine" or "Barn" (French magasin) because of its "peculiar form".[4][5]
However, today some scholars believe Nuttall may have been writing about nearby Mount Nebo, and what is today called Mount Magazine was labeled "Castete Mt" on Nuttall's maps.[6]
Mount Magazine is located due north of Blue Mountain Lake in Logan County, Arkansas, approximately 45 mi (72 km) east of the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. The most scenic route to the top is a 10 mi (16 km) drive along Highway 309 (also known as the Mount Magazine Scenic Byway) from Havana.
The climate is very different from the typical climate of Arkansas state as temperatures remain 10 degrees cooler than normal temperatures in the valleys. The annual average temperature is 56 °F. The park gets 54 inches of rainfall every year, and due to the low clouds, there is fog and limited visibility all year for eight days each month.[8]
Summer
The summer temperature very rarely reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the mountaintop and the hottest average temperature during the summer in the park is 90 degrees Fahrenheit.[8]
Winter
The mountain has limited forest due to the harsh weather during the wintertime. Normal conditions like frost, sleet, hail, snow, and freezing rain can cause the limbs of trees to snap. Higher up on the mountain, frost flowers, ice crystals, hoarfrost, rime ice, and freezing fog can occur.
Climate data for Mount Magazine, 1948–1966 normals and extremes
Looking north from Mount Magazine's Cameron Bluff, October 2013
As the South American plate collided with the North American plate during the late Paleozoic, a major foreland basin, the Arkoma Basin, developed north of the Ouachita Mountains.[10] Small grains of sediment that had filled the Arkoma Basin were compacted and cemented into sedimentary rock.[10] As the land rose above sea level, small streams developed that eventually merged into the Arkansas River.[11] After millions of years of erosion, synclines like Mount Magazine have become the most positive topographic features; this phenomenon is the result of the rapid weathering of shales once sandstones were breached on the flanks of surrounding anticlines.[12]
Mount Magazine is a broad mesa composed of Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks deposited in various shallow-water environments.[13] Like many mountains in the western Arkansas River Valley, Mount Magazine is capped by the Savanna Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, and sandstone; the upper portion of this sequence is missing throughout most of Arkansas.[13] The Savanna Formation is conformable with the underlying McAlester Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and several coal beds.[13] The McAlester Formation is conformable with the underlying Hartshorne Sandstone, a prominent ledge-former under favorable structural conditions.[13] The Hartshorne Sandstone is unconformable with the underlying Atoka Formation. This unit has the largest areal extent of any of the Paleozoic formations in Arkansas, extending as far north as the Boston Mountains, and is divided into upper, middle, and lower members.[13][7]
Nature & Attractions
Mount Magazine promotes environmental conservation through an Eco-friendly nature attraction that allows visitors to explore nature.[14] It also consists of 18 campsites for nature-lovers.[15] An annual butterfly festival is hosted each June in the Paris town square.[16]
Activities include the following: hiking, biking, bird watching, horseback riding, hang gliding, rappelling, rock climbing, sightseeing, and photography.[14] ATV riding is also allowed as there is a guide to the activity.[15]
^Nuttall, Thomas (1821). A Journal of Travels Into the Arkansas Territory: During the Year 1819. With Occasional Observations on the Manners of the Aborigines. Illustrated by a Map and Other Engravings. Philadelphia: Thos. H. Palmer. p. 123.
^ abMorris, R.C. (1974). "Sedimentary and Tectonic History of the Ouachita Mountains". The Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publications. 22.
