November 20, 2009

In 1972, after years of conflict between conservationists and dam supporters, President Richard Nixon signed Public Bill 92-237, making northwest Arkansas’s Buffalo River America’s first national river. The Buffalo National River is one of the few free-flowing, unpolluted streams in the lower forty-eight states. Today, the National Park Service administers approximately 135 miles of the long-admired 150-mile river. The river, shown here just north of Harriet (Searcy County), is one of the most popular canoeing streams in Arkansas.