Arkansas: Where Route 66 Began.
Wait… what?
Back in 2010 a friend and I created a travel show called Two Wheel Oklahoma. It featured Brad Mathison and myself roaming the two-lanes of Oklahoma on our motorcycles. The first episode was about the stretch of old Route 66 from Sapulpa to Arcadia. We began that show on a crusty iron bridge over Rock Creek on the west side of Sapulpa. The bumpy concrete leading west towards Kellyville is part of a very old roadway that predates Route 66, known as the Ozark Trail.
Before Route 66 became America’s Main Street there were several private efforts to cobble together cross-country highways. One of these was the Ozark Trail, a route stretching from St Louis, Missouri to Las Vegas, New Mexico. A large portion of this road network would later become Route 66, which has prompted some to call the Ozark Trail the “Mother of the Mother Road.”
The Trail was marked by unusual stone obelisks, which were called pyramids. Only seven of these obelisks remain, two are in Oklahoma. The story of this road is a uniquely American tale of ingenuity, greed and showmanship that verges on bizarre, and it all begins in Arkansas.
Monte Ne
The story begins all the way back in 1900 when a wealthy eccentric by the name of William H. “Coin” Harvey bought a small Arkansas town called Silver Springs. Harvey had made a fortune with a book promoting the “Free Silver” movement, so the town’s name seems fitting. His book’s main character was named Coin, which eventually became his nickname. In addition to writing, Harvey had a variety of jobs including teacher, lawyer, silver mine operator, promoter, and even ran for president in 1932.
Apparently the town’s name was not his attraction, because he promptly renamed it Monte Ne (which supposedly means mountain water, but I’m not sure what language). He proceeded to plan a resort community and solicited business owners and investors. Eventually his enclave included three hotels, a golf course, indoor swimming pool, canal, amphitheater and, of course, a bank. The three hotels were notable for being made of logs, advertised at the time as the largest log structures ever built. Since there were few roads leading to his new resort he built the Monte Ne Railway in 1902, a 5-mile long spur that delivered visitors from the Frisco line near Lowell, AR.
Ozark Trail
His junior league railroad struggled, and had to be sold in 1908. By 1914 the line was a total failure and ceased operations. Meanwhile, his efforts to create an Ozark paradise were also flailing– few homes were built and even fewer businesses had moved to Monte Ne. Many guests complained about their host’s strict rules forbidding children, or demanding all lights out by 10:00 PM. Undeterred, Harvey schemed on new ways to attract patrons to his struggling resort. The increasingly popular automobile seemed like the answer, but there were few roads leading to Northwest Arkansas in the early 20th century.
Under the guise of promoting safer roadways Harvey created the Ozark Trails Association (OTA) in 1913. His interest in safety was admirable, the fact all roads lead towards Monte Ne was presumably coincidental. The first meeting of the OTA was held at Monte Ne (where else?) and laid out the goals of marking roadways and building new highways through private sponsorship. By promoting private investment in highways as a way for townships to attract commerce the group managed to cobble together a patchwork of roads stretching from St. Louis, MO to Las Vegas, NM. Junctions were marked with obelisks (referred to as pyramids, more on that later) resembling miniature 21-foot tall Washington Monument. A ghost town in Oklahoma was named Pyramid Corners was named for one of these road markers. The work of the OTA was admirable in those days before government-backed highways, and their 1916 meeting in Oklahoma City attracted 7,000 delegates.
Eventually the OTA became irrelevant once the government got into the highway-building game. The cobbled together roadways and pay-to-play naming convention was not feasible for a nationwide network of highways, so the numbering system we are all familiar with today was implemented. But while the Twenties saw the OTA fade into obscurity a good deal of the Ozark Trail would soon become part of the most famous road in the world. On November 11, 1926 the now-famous Route 66 became one of the first federally designated interstate highways. Much of the route through southwest Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico followed the Ozark Trail. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Except… the story of Coin Harvey wasn’t quite finished.
The Pyramid
By 1920 it was evident Monte Ne was a colossal flop. Harvey’s business failures mirrored his personal life: his wife had left for Chicago in 1902, his eldest son followed suit in 1908 and his other son died in a railroad accident. In 1913 he even dabbled in Arkansas politics with similarly dismal results. So what else could he do? Obviously, it was time to build a pyramid.
Apparently the guy was really into pyramids. Remember those highway markers? Looked pretty pointy, but he called them pyramids. It’s possible Harvey was entranced in by the worldwide hysteria over anything Egyptian after the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922. Whatever the reason, he decided he needed to build one!
Somehow Harvey became convinced that civilization was doomed. The latter years of his life were consumed with building a giant concrete pyramid that would house artifacts and knowledge for future archeologists to discover. The first phase of this project was an amphitheater on the banks of the White River he called the Foyer. Above this would be his grand structure, built to withstand the ages. Through the Twenties he pressed on with construction with no actual blueprints. Not surprisingly, the pyramid was never completed beyond one retaining wall. The stock market crash of 1929 ended any hope of attracting investors, and Harvey would die in 1936.
In 1960 the construction of Beaver Dam on the White River wrote the final chapter of Harvey’s unique story. The waters of Beaver Lake covered the amphitheater and lagoon. Today all that remains of the Monte Ne resort are stone foundations, the chimney of the Missouri Row hotel, and the amphitheater and retaining wall for Harvey’s pyramid, which are usually under water. Harvey’s tomb was moved the higher ground nearby, before the lake was filled. A community still exists at Monte Ne, along with some of the original street names. A three-story stone tower, which was part of the Oklahoma Row hotel, was still standing until its demolition in April 2023.
Today the eccentric William “Coin” Harvey is a mere footnote in history. Like most of his schemes, the idyllic utopia Harvey imagined in the Ozark Mountains has long vanished in the waters of Beaver Lake. His greatest legacy turns out to be a his work with the Ozark Trails Association, and its unique honor as Mother of the Mother Road.
More…
Dive deeper into the history of the Ozark Trail and Monte Ne.
