Sugarloaf Mountain (Cleburne County, Arkansas)
Sugar Loaf Mountain an accessible buttes in the vicinity of-- or within the waters of(!)-- Greers Ferry Lake in Cleburne and Van Buren Counties in Arkansas, USA. Sugarloaf refers to a landmark mountain in Heber Springs in Cleburne County, Arkansas, USA.
This popular climbing destination rises 690 feet (210 m) above the fertile valley just east of the city of Heber Springs. It formed as an erosional remnant by the Little Red River (Arkansas). It stands as a monument to the eons of time when the river was patiently carving out the valley from the surrounding hills. Why the sandstone formation has held firm on top of the long familiar landmark is a question that geologists can explain. Because the huge rocks at the top of the formation lie in flat layers and were not folded by continental drift, they cap the mountain on which they lie. Through the centuries, less resistant units of sandstone, silt stone and shale eroded away, leaving the atoka formation which the white man called Sugar Loaf.
Exactly where the mountain first got its name is a question nobody can answer today. The Indians called it Tonawanda or Ton-Wan-Dah. And from the top of Ton-Wan-Dah with its sparse growth of wind-stunted cedars and gnarled scrub oak they could see for miles in every direction. The Indian name, as tradition has it, was that of a family of renowned arrow makers. An abundance of flint chips and imperfect arrow heads remained on the mountaintop long after the white man arrived to attest to this storied past. The earliest white settlers who pushed through the dense forest must have called it Sugar Loaf because of the resemblance in shape to the loaves of unrefined sugar in use at that time. The survey party that was surveying the Louisiana Purchase in 1819 took note of the feature “encountered Sugar Lofe (sic), a well-known landmark”. Presumably Indians and early day travelers on the nearby Little Red River had used it as a landmark. The name of the landmark became the name of the springs to the west and the community that developed there. The community name was later changed to Heber Springs.
Sugar Loaf Mountain is located on a section line, and consequently land transactions have always been conducted in two parcels. For several years, beginning in 1901, the Lucas brothers, Creighton and Richard, maintained a mining claim on the north side of Sugar Loaf Mountain, but apparently no ore or oil was discovered. In 1922 Dr. L.E. Robbins of Heber Springs bought the 40 acres (160,000 m2) on the south of the mountain along with other land from Richard R. Lucas. In 1951 he acquired a clear title to the 40 acres (160,000 m2) on the north side by patent from the U.S. government.
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