Urban wonderland
As our canoes pull away from the launch ramp at Little Rock’s Interstate Park, traffic on nearby Interstate 30 can be heard. We paddle upstream on Fourche Creek on a cool Thursday. Within a few minutes, it’s quiet.
Cypress trees, hundreds of years old, provide a canopy to pass under. The sun reflects off still water. Because water levels are low, we can observe magnificent buttresses of the cypress. A fish breaks the surface just ahead. It’s hard to believe we’re in the city limits of the state’s largest city.
Fourche Creek, which flows for 24 miles, is within those limits for most of its length. Almost 200,000 people live in its watershed, more than live in the watershed of any other stream that begins and ends in Arkansas. This is the largest urban wetland in the South.
“Fourche Creek was named by French explorers associated with the Quapaw, who inhabited the bottomlands around the creek,” Jerry Butler writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “The Quapaw trapped fish using weirs. Fourche is French for fork, as in ‘fork in the road.’ Locals today pronounce its name by omitting the ‘r’ and rhyming it with ‘bush.’
“Fourche Creek shouldn’t be confused with the Fourche River, which starts in Missouri and empties into the Black River in Randolph County, or the Fourche La Fave River, which starts in the Ouachita Mountains and flows through Yell and Perry counties to empty into the Arkansas River.”
The six tributaries of Fourche Creek are Fourche Bayou, Rock Creek, Otter Creek, Brodie Creek, Crooked Creek and Panther Creek.
“Fourche Creek is bridged by three interstate highways, two railroads, seven major thoroughfares and numerous utility lines and pipes,” Butler writes. “Removal of green spaces that slow runoff—combined with development of roads, buildings and parking lots within its watershed—have caused the Fourche and its tributaries to be subject to frequent flash flooding.
“Fourche Creek’s 112-square-mile watershed drains and filters runoff from 73 percent of Little Rock. The storm drain system for the city picks up a massive amount of chemical pollutants, bottles, Styrofoam cups, floatable toys and other such trash and washes it into the Fourche. As a result, the creek has become an eyesore. In addition, much of the septic sewer system of the city follows a path parallel to the creek. If there’s a break or malfunction in the system, raw sewage empties into its waters.”
In recent years, a coalition of groups has worked to clean up the creek and its surrounding wetlands. The coalition includes Friends of Fourche Creek, Keep Little Rock Beautiful, Audubon Arkansas, the Arkansas Canoe Club, Central Arkansas Master Naturalists and others.
The 67-mile Southwest Trail for cyclists and hikers, which will run from Little Rock Central High School to Hot Springs National Park, will cross Fourche Creek just upstream from Interstate Park. That trail will open up the wonders of the creek to thousands of new users. They will learn of the creek’s rich history.
“In the early 1830s, one of the routes of the Trail of Tears took Choctaw and Chickasaw across Fourche Creek on Stagecoach Road,” Butler writes. “In September 1863, Confederate troops lost a pivotal battle along Fourche Creek near what’s now Lindsey Road, allowing Union forces to occupy Little Rock. By the 1930s, a string of dairies and hog farms had begun operations along its banks. Accompanying slaughterhouses dumped the wastes from butchering directly into the creek.”
If the city were to turn the wetlands between Benny Craig Park and Interstate Park into a city park, it would be among the biggest urban parks in America. In an era when outdoor recreational opportunities play a major role in attracting talented residents to cities, Arkansas’ capital city would have a wetland park that matches anything in the country.
“Flooding prevents construction of buildings on property adjacent to the creek,” Butler writes. “That land, known as the Fourche Bottoms, hosts a forest of cypress, tupelo and hardwoods. … Ten municipal parks, most with ballfields, are adjacent to the creek and its tributaries. In spite of the amount of trash in the bottoms, there’s abundant wildlife. Fish swim in its water, including catfish, bass, crappie, bluegill, carp and drum.”
A canoe trail from Benny Craig Park to Interstate Park covers 4.4 miles. Beaver, mink and otter are among the wildlife that sometimes can be seen along the creek.
In a 2015 article for the Arkansas Times, Butler laid out five one-day float trips. The first trip launches from the north side of the bridge on Stagecoach Road west of Otter Creek Park and takes out near Interstate 430. The second float launches near Interstate 430 one mile south of the Stagecoach Road exit and takes out above a low-water bridge in Hindman Park. The third trip launches below the low-water bridge at Hindman Park and takes out at Benny Craig Park. The fourth float is from Benny Craig Park to Interstate Park.
“If you can only float one section of Fourche Creek, this is the one to choose,” Butler writes of the Benny Craig to Interstate section. “It probably has enough water even in midsummer to accommodate a canoe, and concrete boat ramps are at both ends. The surroundings are gorgeous on this section, and much of the floating debris from upstream at Benny Craig Park is captured by a floating boom.”
Friends of Fourche Creek has focused its cleanup efforts on this stretch, which can be covered in about seven hours. The final stretch Butler listed is from Interstate Park to Remmel Park.
Friends of Fourche Creek was created in 2010 to clean up the wetlands, secure grants and promote the creek’s recreational potential. With completion of the Southwest Trail in the area, more people will be floating the creek, fishing along its banks, bird-watching and hiking.
Norm Berner, the Friends of Fourche Creek chairman, said he told Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde that the organization will take care of the trail as it passes through the wetlands.
“I also shared with the judge that we ought to use native plants along the trail to reduce mowing costs and then create some small pollinator gardens,” Berner says. “Keep Little Rock Beautiful has created its first pollinator garden at Allsopp Park, and we’re looking to create additional gardens in the city.”
Berner is hopeful a private outfitter will invest in a location at Interstate Park to rent kayaks and canoes for people using the creek. The same outfitter could rent bikes to be used on the Southwest Trail. Berner thinks more people will use the Southwest Trail when it’s completed than currently use the Arkansas River Trail.
Friends of Fourche Creek volunteers are staffing a booth inside the Hall of Industry at the Arkansas State Fair to promote their efforts. Most Arkansas residents have no idea of the recreational opportunities the creek offers. Construction of the Southwest Trail will change that.
“My grandfather and his brothers once had a dairy farm along the creek,” Butler writes. “Our neighbors—the Boyds, Terrys and Colemans— ran dairies, too. Our cows drank from the same water, and sometimes they drowned in Fourche Creek because the area was prone to flooding. Fourche Creek was not just our playground; it was tied to our livelihood.
“I’ve kayaked, canoed or used a johnboat for jaunts down the Spring, Cossatot, Ouachita, Saline, White, Little Red, Fourche La Fave and Caddo rivers in Arkansas and the Current River in Missouri. I’ve ridden a rubber raft in big-time whitewater on both the Snake River and the Yellowstone. I’ve air-boated the Everglades, motor-boated the Rio Grande and dinner-cruised the San Antonio River.
“However, none of these adventures were as captivating and curious to me as the back-tomy-roots float I made through urban Little Rock for five days on Fourche Creek.”