Photograph of Poison Springs Battleground State Park — Photograph by National Park Service (photos in this publication are NPS unless specifically credited, which this one is not), Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Poison Spring State Park

Built in 1961. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

From the record

“Poison Springs Battleground State Park is an Arkansas state park located southeast of Bluff City. It commemorates the Battle of Poison Spring in the American Civil War, which was part of the 1864 Camden Expedition, an element of a Union Army initiative to gain control of Shreveport, Louisiana, and get a foothold in Texas.”
Wikipedia article Poison Springs Battleground State Park, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 42 National Register listings published here for Ouachita County · listed in 1969 · category: Site · built in 1961.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. NW of Camden, Chidester, 71726
When was it listed? December 1969
Category. site
Township. Red Hill township
When was it built? 1961
National Register reference number. 69000036 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

81 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 81 fires within 5 miles of Poison Spring State Park between 1997 and 2019, burning about 461 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 34 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Arson/incendiarism	34
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	19
Debris and open burning	15
Natural	8
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2006	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
5 September 2011	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
3 September 2011	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
26 September 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
24 September 2011	Natural	2.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
2 September 2000	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 1997	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
10 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named

Every fire recorded in Ouachita County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Poison Spring State Park: 4 past producers, 1 producer, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Hope Brick Co Pit	Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Chidester	Clay	Past Producer
No Name	Clay	Past Producer
Unk	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unk	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Ouachita County

Storms near this property

33 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chidester, the town this property stands in, in 33 storm reports between 1993 and 2020: 16 thunderstorm wind, 12 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2009	Flash Flood	Chidester	$75,000	Arkansas Highway 57 west of Stephens was closed due to high water. Numerous county roads were closed across Ouachita County due to high water.
October 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	$15,000	Trees were blown down onto Arkansas 24 and 57.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	$5,000	Trees were blown down.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	$5,000	A few large trees were blown down along Arkansas Highway 24.
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds knocked down some trees.
October 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	$5,000	no account filed
September 2009	Flood	Chidester	-	Flash flooding which developed on the 17th became widespread areal flooding during the early hours of the 18th.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	Trees were down on Arkansas Highway 24.
March 2007	Flash Flood	Chidester	-	Water was over Ouachita County Road 25.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	Numerous trees were blown down at various locations between Chidester and Bearden.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	Thunderstorm winds downed about 25 large trees onto trails at White Oak State Park.
August 2005	Flash Flood	Chidester	-	Heavy rains caused localized flooding at White Oak State Park.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	A cluster of severe thunderstorms moved across northern Ouachita County. The storms tracked from near Chidester to around Bearden, and downed numerous trees along the way. One tree fell on a mobile home at Chidester. The storms also pruduced torrential rainfall, with flooding reported later in the evening.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down some large trees.
July 1997	Hail	Chidester	-	Hail up to quarter size damaged the roofs of several buildings and some vehicles.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees.
February 2020	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
February 2020	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
August 2004	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
October 2003	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
August 2001	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
May 1999	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
September 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	no account filed
August 1998	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
August 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	no account filed
January 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	no account filed
January 1997	Lightning	Chidester	-	no account filed
April 1996	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
October 1996	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed
October 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	no account filed
February 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Chidester	-	no account filed
June 1994	Hail	Chidester	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ouachita County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Harvey's Grocery and Texaco Station	6.7 miles	2001
Richmond-Tufts House	6.9 miles	1977
Two Bayou Methodist Church and Cemetery	7.7 miles	1998

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 69000036 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ouachita County	All 42 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.