Hebert property chosen as May’s Yard of the Month

Submitted by Rebecca Thornton

The Polk County Master Gardeners were proud to present the Yard of the Month to Edith Hebert, at 2205 Church Ave., Mena.

Edith and her husband Frank bought the acre of land in 1972. They later purchased another acre-and-ahalf. Frank then started Mena steel buildings.

In 1972, they spent all their weekends clearing acreage, bringing in loads of fill and topsoil, and raking for flowerbeds. They built two bridges on the property. While in high school, their son Bryan decided to bring in rocks from the creek. It has definitely become a beautiful focal point of the yard.

Frank passed in April 2010. This is a tribute to his vision of what their home would be.

Edith said this is the passion they had for taking care of home and grounds. She says it has been a blessing. And it certainly shows.

Edith is still taking care and making Mena beautiful. Thank you Edith.

This new project presented by the Polk County Master Gardeners will be accepting more nominations for future Yard of the Month recipients, to be turned into our Polk County Extension Office, 211 Dequeen St., Mena.

Get a head start on your plants by attending the Master Gardeners annual plant sale at the Polk County Fairgrounds from 8 a.m. - noon this Saturday, May 13. It’s free to get in and look around. They accept cash and check only to purchase items.

By Richie Lawry

Even though I have lived in Mena, Arkansas, for over 40 years, I am still amazed by the area’s natural beauty. I love to travel and see America’s wonderfully varied landscapes, but when I come home to the Ouachitas, I realize that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.

I recently discovered a bit of history about this area that surprised me. I learned that in the 1920s, Congress introduced legislation that would have created a national park in this area. The proposed Ouachita National Park would have been 35 miles long and 12 miles wide, stretching through the central Ouachita Mountains of Polk and Montgomery counties.

The original proposal for a national park in the Ouachitas came in the early 1920s from business leaders in Mena, Arkansas. Their initial proposal for establishing Mena National Park focused on Rich Mountain, including the area now designated as Queen Wilhelmina State Park. But as the idea for a national park grew, they focused on a much larger area southeast of Mena.

Prominent politicians, businessmen from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, and local leaders from Mena worked hard to promote the idea. They organized The Ouachita National Park Foundation Society to promote the need for a national park in the South. The society published a promotional booklet that extolled the area’s scenic beauty. It described the wide variety of vistas found in the proposed park. “There are steep, timber-covered peaks rising to 2,500 feet, long ridges of mountains, with peaks separated only by narrow green valleys with streams of pure, cold, spring water in abundance.”

Society members wrote many articles praising the beauty of the Ouachitas and the proposed national park. In November 1926, K. E. Merren published an article titled “Ouachita National Park Will Be a Dixie Paradise.” In the article, he wrote, “Few countries can surpass Arkansas in the beauties of its mountain landscape. The hills are wooded with evergreens and broadleafs, the pines appearing as bands of deeper green. Along some of the streams are mighty cliffs with tousled