NATURAL STEPS, ARKANSAS

'Natural Steps' (established mid 1800's) is located in Pulaski County, Arkansas, just 11 miles west of Little Rock along the southern bank of the Arkansas River. Today, it is just a small farming community. Most of the natural steps still stand today and are still used as a marker for river runners. The Natural Steps are not open to the public for viewing.

Contents

History

Masonic Stone

Maynard House

Steamboat Landing

Archeological Dig

Legend

Sources

History

The small town was named after "two perfectly parallel vertical walls of sandstone, twenty feet apart, that jut out from the disintegrated soft slates, prominent conformity, descending step like, fifty-one feet from the top of the bank, where they first show themselves, to the edge of the lowest water-mark of the Arkansas River and can be seen running their course beneath the stream. These form a conspicuous landmark to boatman and travelers on the Arkansas River, and are known under the name of the "Natural Steps". Beginning in 1822, the local “Natural Steps” provided a convenient stop for Little Rock (Pulaski County) visitors to disembark for their hike to the mountain."

Natural Steps was first written about by David Dale Owen (Principal Geologist)in his Second Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the Middle and Southern Counties of Arkansas (1859) ordered by Elias Nelson Conway , Governor of Arkansas. He wrote, "In sight of the Pinnacle (now Pinnacle Mountain State Park)on the Arkansas River, near the mouth of the Big Maumelle, are "The Natural Steps" I found to be forty feet above the Arkansas River, at its stage when I examined and sketched them, on May 30th, 1859, but they are fifty-one feet above low-water mark."
"Seen from the River at a little distance, they have a wonderfully artificial appearance, looking like steps laid by regular masonry, and form, indeed, not only a remarkable feature in the landscape, but also a striking and unequivocal instance, of which Arkansas furnishes several, of strata tilted nearly on edge."

"In 1870, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. John Navarre Macomb (a great grandson of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence) , along with Assistant Engineer S.T. Abert, and probably a good-sized support staff of soldiers, set out to map the Arkansas River and show low-water depths across the channel at close intervals, as well as gravel bars and shoals, ferry and landing locations, and other features important to river travel. The map was clearly intended for navigation." In their maps, a drawing and location of the "Natural Steps" were included.

Masonic Stone

A stone marker was placed on top of the Natural Steps, overlooking the Arkansas River, on July 4th, 1976, as a remembrance to the meeting between three masonic lodges on July 4th, 1876 at this spot. "They used to come up the river on a steamboat and tie up here and picnic." With the stone marker, a time capsule was buried and is not to be opened until 2076. The stone marker was placed here by the same masonic lodges of the area.

Maynard House

One of the first homes in Natural Steps was built in 1870. "It is a tall house that faces the river and until the flood of 1927 the river ran much closer to the house. There used to be a gin on the place and boats pulled up there to load and unload cotton." The home is not open to the public.

Steamboat Landing

The Natural Steps used to be famous for boatloads of picknickers that went up and down the river in steamboats in the 1800's. The Arkansas Gazette on May 19, 1878 wrote, "''The excursion yesterday to Natural Steps on the steamer Maumelle under the auspices of the M.E. church and the management of its popular pastor, Rev. A.W. Decker, and Gen. Henry Rudd, was a great success, both pecuniarily and pleasurably. The boat left Little Rock promptly at 8:30 a.m. and after traversing our beautiful river, with its varied and picturesque scenery for about thirty miles duly reached its point of destination, the Natural Steps, where the excursionists disembarked and sought the shady groves in the vicinity, where they indulged in picnicking in the true and time-honored style; after when the Natural Steps were duly inspected and climbed and such getting up stairs you never did see."''

Archeological Dig

"During early European explorations and the colonial period, local Native Americans, from about 1500 to the late 1700s, were the Tunica and the Quapaw." A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819, written by naturalist Thomas Nuttall. "Thomas Nuttall found few Native Americans in the area in 1819."
The Arkansas Gazette wrote in April 17, 1979 that, "There was an archeological dig from the University of Arkansas working near the Natural Steps. They found bodies of three Indians who had been buried there. They were buried sitting up."

Legend

In the 1940s, residents of Natural Steps began dynamiting the steps in search of Confederate gold lying beneath the massive stones. The legend is, a Confederate Gunboat was sunk at the natural steps so the Union Army, that just claimed Little Rock, couldn't take possession of the Confederate gold on board. The thought being, the steps would be a marker for where the gold laid and the Confederates could come back later and reclaim it. Three Confederate soldiers died in the explosion that sank the gunboat and are buried in the Natural Steps Cemetery. No gold was ever found in the 1940's and the steps were partially destroyed by the dynamite.

Sources

★ Second Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the Middle and Southern Counties of Arkansas, , David, Dale Owen, , ,

★ A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819., , Thomas, Nuttall, , ,

★ Macomb and Abert's Map of the Arkansas River, , , , , ,

★ Natural Steps: Picnickers Are Gone, , , , , ,

★ Pinnacle Mountain State Park

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