May 19, 1978

Logoly State Park opened in southwest Arkansas. It is the state’s first environmental state park and is one of only a few of its kind in the nation. Operated cooperatively by the State Parks Department and Arkansas Natural Heritage, it serves as a laboratory for students and nature lovers interested in ecological and environmental topics and is a popular destination for field trips for area schools. The land was once peopled by Native Americans, and it was used as a Methodist Episcopal Church South meeting ground in the 1880s. Leased for a camp by the De Soto Council of Boy Scouts, it was given the name Logoly for the first two letters of the names—Longino, Goodes, Lyles—of the families who had acquired the property.