1930s Mather Lodge renovated, reopened
Petit Jean visitors find nature, Internet
PETIT JEAN STATE PARK — Ron Blake sat at a table with thick wooden legs and sent e-mails from his ipad — taking advantage of the rustic Mather Lodge restaurant’s Internet service while he savored its panoramic view.
From his window-side seat, Blake, of Liberty, Texas, could watch birds flying amid the trees and cliffs of Petit Jean Mountain, look down into Cedar Creek Canyon and even see Arkansas’ tallest peak, Mount Magazine, roughly 30 miles away.
Blake, who had been camping with relatives at Petit Jean State Park near Morrilton last week, was making a final visit to the restaurant in the newly reopened and renovated lodge before leaving Arkansas’ oldest state park Thursday.
The lodge reopened Tuesday for the first time since December 2010 when it closed for a $4.3 million renovation financed by the state’s conservation tax.
Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and expanded in the 1960s, the lodge was named after Stephen Mather, a National Park Service director who in the 1920s suggested trying to persuade the Arkansas Leg-
islature to make Petit Jean a state park.
“None of the historic part of the building was destroyed” in the renovation, said Park Superintendent Wally Scherrey. “We just did a face-lift.”
The face-lift reflects the Adirondack-style park architecture of the 1930s portion of the lodge while also making the historic site more comfortable for guests and workers.
The lodge was expanded from more than 6,000 square feet to more than 11,000 square feet to include a new restaurant and larger more modern kitchen that includes such features as a walk-in cooler and freezer, and an electric smoker for the likes of brisket and chicken.
The lodge’s 24 rooms, spread over two levels, also got a face-lift. Among the improvements are flat-screen televisions.
Blake had been eating in the new restaurant regularly since it reopened. He said he hopes to stay in the renovated lodge on a future trip to Petit Jean State Park, a place he has been visiting since his son — now a father himself — was a child.
“I’ve been out West and have seen some really grand lodges in the national park system,” Blake said. “This rivals [them]. They really did a marvelous job of bringing the old into the new.”
Before entering the restaurant, visitors walk through a new lobby that features a large wall plaque that tells the lodge’s history and a small gift shop selling such things as wooden walking canes and whistles.
A custom-designed carpet that features a pattern of green and red leaves covers the lobby floor. Leather sofas are available there and in a flagstone-floored breezeway where hummingbirds dart to and from nearby feeders; the breezeway offers a view of the start of the steep mile-long Cedar Falls Trail.
The renovation also restored the lodge’s original rock-walled lobby by removing a carpet that had covered a now-refinished hardwood floor. The furniture in that room is the original wood, with new cushions added.
Visitors can travel back in time with a visit to the lodge’s former dining room. There are ladder-back chairs with hickory-bark seats, the original rock fireplace, walls of logs and rocks, and a pine chandelier.
A heavy wooden door with a forged steel hinge has been preserved but replaced with a door that meets federal disability standards.
The renovation also includes a 50-person room for meetings and small banquets, a new swimming pool, and public restrooms near the pool and the walking trail.
The newly built restaurant was bustling with lunch-time customers Thursday.
The restaurant, which can seat 100 people, combines Arkansas rocks and log beams and posts made from Canadian white pine trees that had died.
It will be open 365 days a year.
“Wal-mart’s not even open on Christmas,” Scherrey said, “but we are.”
Scherrey’s personal favorite menu item is the Big Rock Burger, a half-pounder made from beef from openrange cattle raised by Winrock Farms on Petit Jean Mountain. The cattle are steroid- and antibiotic-free, Scherrey said.
Last week, Gary and Mary Tumlison of Conway checked out the renovated lodge, where they had stayed before, and hiked the Cedar Falls Trail. They may stay there again, Mary Tumlison said.
“They did a beautiful job matching the new and the old,” she said.
Though the lodge’s restaurant and rooms were closed during the renovation, nearby cabins in the complex remained opened. Among them are two honeymoon cabins with hot tubs, 20 cabins with kitchens and 12 cabins without kitchens, Scherrey said. Petit Jean State Park also offers 125 campsites.