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Historical Reflections On The Arkansas Cross Timbers, Don C. Bragg

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Kiichler's original map of potential natural vegetation suggested that the eastern-most extension of the "Cross Timbers" oak-dominated woodland reached into extreme western Arkansas. Recent investigations have found possible old-growth Cross Timber communities in narrow strips along steep, rocky sandstone and shale ridges near Fort Chaffee and Hackett. However, many decades of Euroamerican intervention have altered vegetation composition and structure in west-central Arkansas, making field evaluation difficult. Fortunately, historical accounts of the area provide considerable supporting documentation. General Land Office surveyors, for instance, traversed this portion of western Arkansas before 1850. They reported many ridges and slopes dominated by grassy, stunted …