College Lodge

Stout’s (or Stouts) Point is at the entrance and eastern end of Petit Jean Mountain, with a view including the Arkansas River and miles of valley land. At Stout’s Point are the ruins of a stone structure called College Lodge, which was built by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in the 1920s. All that remains are four walls (with openings for windows and doors) and part of a fireplace.

College Lodge sits on land originally used as a farm and orchard by Daniel Nelson and his family and later by William Cummings Stout for Hotel Petit Jean. Eventually, the land was donated to the YMCA. The YMCA established Camp Petit Jean in 1920.

The YMCA later hired local architect John P. Almand to draw up plans for College Lodge, which was intended for the State Student Council and other meetings. On February 23, 1925, two years after the establishment of what is now Petit Jean State Park, the committee in charge met, and construction of the $5,000 building began. It was financed and built by Arkansas YMCA college students.

Committee members included John L. Hunter, the state YMCA secretary, of Little Rock (Pulaski County); George Workman, assistant state secretary, of Arkadelphia (Clark County); Dr. T. S. Staples of Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County); Professor R. G. Turrentise of the Second District Agricultural School (now Arkansas Tech University) in Russellville (Pope County); Professor N. F. Coolidge of State Normal College (now the University of Central Arkansas) in Conway; and a Mr. Cable (possibly Franklin Jobe Cable) of Henderson-Brown College in Arkadelphia.

On March 27, 1926, Dr. T. S. Staples, head of the history department of Hendrix College, and delegates of the tenth annual convention of the state YMCA dedicated and accepted College Lodge on behalf of the YMCA students. Rev. E. K. Sewell, pastor of Wilson Community Church in Wilson (Mississippi County), gave the invocation. It served, as related in the 1925 yearbook of the Arkansas State Teachers College (now University of Central Arkansas), for many years “as a quiet retreat, where the college religious groups may find renewed spiritual inspiration and mutual cooperation throughout the coming years.”

In his diaries, Dr. T. W. Hardison, who was instrumental in the establishment of Petit Jean as a state park, wrote of June 13, 1930, “We spent a few hours at the Point and the Camp today, the occasion being the dedication of the lodge at the point.” In November 1931, Hardison wrote that he was invited to Thanksgiving at the lodge at the point. After this, records of College Lodge are sparse. The building burned in the 1940s, and the central fireplace chimney eventually collapsed.

According to an Arkansas Geological Survey publication, The Geologic Story of Petit Jean State Park by Angela Chandler, the rocks that make up much of the College Lodge structure show a swirl pattern common to the Petit Jean Mountain area. This type of rock with color banding—or technically Liesegang banding—at College Lodge is Hartshorne Sandstone formed by “rhythmic precipitation of iron hydroxide within a saturated rock.”

Petit Jean State Park leases the former YMCA Camp Petit Jean Stout’s Point site from the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, which purchased land on Petit Jean Mountain including Stout’s Point in the 1940s as it was building Camp Mitchell.

For additional information:
Chandler, Angela. The Geologic Story of Petit Jean Park. State Park Series 02. Little Rock: Arkansas Geological Survey, 2007. Online at https://www.geology.arkansas.gov/docs/pdf/publication/state_park_series/geology-of-petit-jean-state-park.pdf (accessed September 19, 2025).

“College Lodge of Y.M.C.A. Dedicated.” Arkansas Gazette, March 28, 1926, p. 1.

The Scroll, Arkansas State Teachers College, 1925, p. 76. Online at https://uca.edu/archives/the-scroll/ (accessed September 19, 2025).

T. W. Hardison Diary. Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://ar-digital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/manuscripts/id/843/ (accessed September 19, 2025).