Ouachita Baptist College - Ouachitonian Yearbook (Arkadelphia, AR)

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BIG BLUFF NEAR ARKADELPHIA, ARK. luv W. H. I-lALi.iBURToNj Legend and romance have coiled like smoke rings around Big Bluff, making this scenic eminence the Mecca of Nature's strolling children. First tc do obeisance hefore this queen of hills was the graceful Ouachita whose clear waters make a crescent detour at the feet of Her Majesty. The first red man who came canoeing down the str:am must have hailed with natural reverence this majestic wooded height whose walls lift sheer up above the waterys level here. With the pride of a discoverer, it is believed, he gave it some beautiful name which has been lost with the disappearance of nature,s ruddy children. To the north as far as the eye can see, rise hills and pine-clad mountains which seem to form tier lnehind tier of seats in some gargantuan ampitheatre. Ir is easy to fancy Big Bluff as the stage and the warblers of the forest rehearing their birdal operas here. The scampering squirrels enact their comedies on this sylvan rostrum, and the trees across the river-eappreciative listeners-clap their leafy hands in sincere applause. For a hundred years pale-face lovers here have woed. The tree trunks are gashed with pocket-knife hieroglyphics, some carved many years ago, They tell graphic stories of friendship and love, Desoto and his intrepid Spaniards sojourned here part of a winter, returning from The Fountain uf Youth, now known as Hot Springs, a story tells. There is a huge heech tree down the slope which bears a splendidly preserved carving which says that in April, 1809, came this way one, William lVIoney, trader with the Indians of the great Southwest. Is there a more bcautiful scene anywhere in all southern Arkansas than Big Bluff and its vista to the north? For nearly fifty years students cf Ouachita and Henderson colleges have worshiped Nature at this eminence. They have stolen away from halls of learning to breathe in the pine-scented air of this hilltop and exhale a prayer to l-lim who has given them bcauty and the gift of appreciation,