Regular readers of this column know my affinity for the Arkansas parks system. Not only did I grow up going to many of them, but I worked for the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism for more than six years. I actually worked in a state park (Pinnacle Mountain), and during my time in the tourism division I was able to visit all 52 state parks. Add the fact that my paternal grandfather was in the Civilian Conservation Corps as a young man and helped build several of our state’s first parks, and you could say a love of Arkansas state parks was in my DNA from the beginning.
One park that my grandfather, Festus Floyd “Bud” Brown, helped build was Lake Catherine State Park, situated along the south shore of Lake Catherine, 13 miles southeast of Hot Springs.
The park’s namesake was created when Arkansas Power & Light (now Entergy Arkansas) dammed the Ouachita River with the Remmel Dam, which was completed in December 1924. The dam was named after Col. Harmon Remmel, who helped AP&L founder Harvey Couch get a permit from the federal government to dam the river. Lake Catherine was named for Couch’s daughter.
With a donation of 2,220 acres from Couch and AP&L to the state of Arkansas, Lake Catherine State Park was one of the original four state parks built in the Natural State in the mid- to late-1930s, along with Petit Jean, Devil’s Den and Buffalo River, which was absorbed into the Buffalo National River when the federal government’s park was established in 1972.
Lake Catherine State Park was built by the young men of the CCC in 1937, and several of the structures they built still stand and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. During World War II from 1942 to 1945, Lake Catherine State Park served as a satellite facility for wounded servicemen from the U.S. Army and Navy hospital in downtown Hot Springs. In 1943, German prisoners of war were brought in to complete structures left unfinished by the CCC after the federal government diverted resources to the war effort.
The park has 20 fully furnished cabins and 70 hook-up campsites, six primitive tent sites and one Rent-a-Yurt. A word of advice — if you’re looking to stay in one of the park’s rustic cabins or even camp, be sure and check availability first by calling the park’s visitors’ center at (501) 844-4176. Both the cabins and campsites tend to fill up quickly, especially during the summer.
Park interpreters offer hikes, guided lake tours and other interpretive programs year-round. Along with camping and lodging, the park also offers a launch ramp, pavilion, several picnic sites, a swimming beach, playgrounds and three hiking trails. One of the most photographed sites in the park is located at the end of one of those trails — the Falls Creek waterfall, which is especially beautiful after a hard rain.
The park also operates the only full-service marina on Lake Catherine. There you can purchase boat fuel, bait, snacks, drinks, sunscreen and everything you'll need for a day on the water. Pontoon and fishing boats can be rented at the marina, along with kayaks, canoes and pedal boats.
When I worked at parks and tourism we had a slogan that appeared in marketing materials and even on bumper stickers: “Go play in your own backyard!” Amid high gas prices and inflation, many Arkansans will no doubt be playing in their own backyard this summer, and I can’t think of a better place for a “staycation” than beautiful Lake Catherine State Park, one of the true gems of Arkansas’ state park system. I’m sure my grandpa would agree.
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