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"Old
Marble Falls” by Paul McGehee. Tucked away in green hills of Newton
County, Arkansas along Mill Creek lies the beautiful Marble Falls. A
natural wonder, located in what used to be known as Marble City after
the marble stone that was quarried nearby. In 1836 marble from the
quarry was transported by ox cart for 60 miles over the mountains to
the Arkansas River where it then traveled by water, eventually ending
up in Washington, D.C. where the Washington Monument was under
construction. To this day, at the 30' mark of that obelisk can be found
a stone with “ARKANSAS” chiseled into it, from that quarry at Marble
Falls. Over the years the rushing waters of the Falls on Mill Creek
powered grinding wheels for the production of flour, milling machines
for the refinement of cotton, and power saws to cut lumber for
construction. Things boomed for a while in the late 1800's, and the
town that sprang up acquired a name, Wilcockson. But, hard times hit in
the early 1900's when the milling operations ceased to exist. In 1934,
in an effort to put the naturally beautiful spot on the map for
tourism, the town was renamed after one of its greatest visual
assets...Marble Falls. In the mid-1960's big things were afoot in
little Marble Falls...the popularity of Al Capp's newspaper comic strip
“Lil' Abner” which had already spawned movies and a Broadway musical
with its colorful country characters, was about to bring them all to
life in an 825-acre theme park to be called “Dogpatch, U.S.A.” It was
built around the Marble Falls as its centerpiece...an entire hillbilly
village with an amusement park and a miniature train which folks could
ride on, as it coursed past authentic Ozark Mountain shacks with park
employees dressed as Mammy Yokum, Pappy Yokum, Daisy Mae, Abner, etc.
all in costume, walking around and doing what they would do everyday in
the comics, only in real life...hangin' out laundry, brewin' Kickapoo
Joy Juice, bathin' in washtubs, and in general, feudin', fussin' an'
fightin'! And of course Sadie Hawkins was on the prowl, looking for a
feller. The town square of Dogpatch featured a large statue of their
native son and hero, Jubilation T. Cornpone. The nearby Mystic Caverns
were rechristened “Dogpatch Caverns”. The “Dogpatch” amusement park was
a fun family place with ferris wheel, carnival rides and water
attractions. Great things were projected for the development of the
region because of it. Unfortunately the Marble Falls was altered in the
process of constructing the park, however, with a train trestle now
coursing overhead and stonework buildings on the creek diverting the
natural flow of the water over the rocks, forever changing the
appearance of the Falls. The park flourished for a few years but then
went into decline in the 1970's as it was pretty much out of the way,
and other nearby attractions such as the music halls of Branson,
Missouri to the north were drawing tourism away. “Dogpatch, U.S.A.”
limped along through the decades, and finally closed for good in 1993.
Other plans for the old park have come and gone, but there are high
hopes for the present, as the land was recently acquired by Johnny
Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, who intends to restore, preserve and
share the environs as the Marble Falls Nature Park. The artwork depicts
Arkansas' Marble Falls as it once was, in days of yesteryear, before
Lil' Abner and his friends arrived...back when it was the local
swimming hole. It was, and still is, one of the most naturally
beautiful and peaceful scenes in the country.
"Old Marble Falls" is faithfully reproduced as an archival-quality
print from McGehee's original color pencil and acrylic artwork, each
hand-signed by the artist.
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