The Story in Van Winkle Hollow
A quiet place along Highway 12 between Rogers and Eureka Springs holds...
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A quiet place along Highway 12 between Rogers and Eureka Springs holds the story of early Northwest Arkansas, etched across the landscape.
At Van Winkle Hollow, tucked within Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area, a short walking trail leads beneath a hardwood canopy, alongside a natural spring and past the stone foundations of buildings that once stood here. Today, it is an easy place to stop for a picnic, stretch your legs, or spend a fall afternoon amid changing leaves.
But more than 150 years ago, this was the home of Peter Van Winkle and the center of one of Northwest Arkansas’s most significant early lumber operations. Long before Rogers became a city, people lived and worked here. Wagons traveled the roads, and a steam-powered mill processed timber into lumber. Families built their lives in the hollow, and the products made here traveled across a growing Northwest Arkansas.
Visiting Van Winkle Hollow offers more than an easy Arkansas hiking trail. It is a chance to step into the story of how Northwest Arkansas was built.
Who Was Peter Van Winkle?
Peter Marselis Van Winkle was born in New York City in 1814. His family later moved west to Illinois, and as a young man, Van Winkle continued westward to Arkansas.
In the 1830s, he purchased land in Washington County and eventually settled near Fayetteville. By 1850, records indicate he worked as a farmer, blacksmith, and wagon maker. He married Temperance Miller, and together they began raising a family in a still-developing region.
Van Winkle’s early occupations also gave him firsthand knowledge of the needs of a growing community. Settlers needed wagons, farmers needed tools and equipment, and new houses, barns, businesses, and communities required lumber.
Van Winkle began milling lumber using animal power, first oxen and later horses. By the 1850s, his growing business led him farther into the Ozarks and to the place that would forever be associated with his name.
Where Is Van Winkle Hollow?
Van Winkle Hollow is located along Highway 12, east of Rogers, in Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area.
It is easy to think of this area as a wooded, winding back road connecting Rogers with Beaver Lake and Eureka Springs. But when Van Winkle established his operation here, Rogers did not yet exist. The city wasn’t founded until 1881.
Within the hollow, Van Winkle found what his business needed. The surrounding forests provided timber, and the location offered access to the roads required to transport lumber throughout the region. Around 1856, he moved his operation to the hollow, and soon steam power helped transform it into a major industrial site.
Life and Industry in Van Winkle Hollow
When you visit, try to remove the modern highway from the scene and imagine a working community nestled in the hollow.
The Van Winkle family lived here in a large home near the mill. Employees, groundskeepers, and others associated with the operation also lived and worked in the area. At various times, the complex included a sawmill, a gristmill, blacksmithing operations, and other buildings necessary to support the people and their work.
By the 1870s, Van Winkle operated what Arkansas State Parks describes as the state’s largest steam-powered sawmill. However, the Civil War interrupted that prosperity. The Van Winkle family left Arkansas during the war, and the original home and mill were destroyed. After the war, when the family returned, Peter Van Winkle rebuilt.
The timing of the rebuilt mill proved significant. Northwest Arkansas communities damaged during the Civil War needed lumber, and Van Winkle was well positioned to supply it.
His lumber helped rebuild Fayetteville and was used in several of the region’s major construction projects. Van Winkle even supplied lumber for Old Main at the University of Arkansas.
Eventually, the lumber business expanded beyond the hollow, with lumberyards in the new communities of Rogers and Eureka Springs and access to thousands of acres of timberland across the region.
The quiet foundations and city path that visitors walk past today once supported a business that helped build and rebuild Northwest Arkansas.
Commerce Traveled Through the Hollow
Perhaps one of the hardest things to understand while standing in Van Winkle Hollow today is why anyone would establish such a significant business here. While this seems “on the edge of town” now, it was once considered close to resources, with access to the streams’ power and to multiple communities.
Before railroads reshaped Northwest Arkansas, roads through the Ozarks linked settlements, farms, mills, and trading centers. Van Winkle relied on those roads to deliver lumber to customers, and his crews helped develop roads across the region to support that effort.
Several roads intersected near the Van Winkle home. Travelers passing through this part of Benton County would have encountered a landscape very different from the forest seen today. Horses and wagons traveled these routes, goods moved between communities, and mills like Van Winkle’s became natural centers of commerce.
Nearby routes connected travelers to places such as Elkhorn Tavern, now preserved at Pea Ridge National Military Park. Elkhorn stood at the intersection of historic roads that carried settlers, mail, stagecoaches, military troops, and commerce through Northwest Arkansas. The historic Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Road was an important postal route that facilitated commerce by using established post roads and business centers to reach rural towns.
Eventually, the railroad changed everything. Rogers was established along the Frisco Railroad in 1881, and commerce increasingly shifted to the new town. But for decades before that transition, places like Van Winkle Hollow show how natural resources and overland roads shaped where people worked and built businesses.
Exploring Van Winkle Hollow Today
The Historic Van Winkle Trail is now part of Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area, making it an easy addition to a day spent exploring the park, Beaver Lake, or the Highway 12 corridor between Rogers and Eureka Springs.
The half-mile loop is rated easy and ADA-accessible. A paved parking area along Highway 12 provides access to the trail, and visitors pass through a tunnel beneath the highway to reach the historic site.
The trail follows a mostly flat, crushed-stone path through the historic grounds. Interpretive panels help visitors understand where the Van Winkle home, mill, and other structures once stood. Only portions of the stone foundations remain, but knowing what once stood there makes it easier to reconstruct the community in your imagination.
Look beyond the signs, sit by the natural spring, and listen to the water. Walk beneath mature trees. Look across the open spaces and imagine horses, wagons, and people traveling between the home and the mill. Find traces of old roads that once connected this hollow to a much larger world.
For families, this is also a wonderful “say yes” outdoor space.
The trail is short and approachable, with room for children to walk, talk, and explore without every moment feeling like a warning to slow down or keep up. The relatively flat terrain also makes Van Winkle Hollow suitable for strollers and for visitors seeking a less strenuous way to spend time outdoors.
There are picnic tables at the trailhead, so pack a lunch and linger a little longer. Visitors can also explore the nearby Sinking Stream Trail or make Van Winkle Hollow a stop on a longer day at Hobbs State Park.
Visit Van Winkle Hollow in the Fall
Van Winkle Hollow tells its story in every season, but fall adds something special. I enjoy it as an easy spot for a fall morning before heading to Jasper to look for elk, or for a wander and a nearby lunch at War Eagle Mill.
Oak and hickory trees form a canopy over the historic grounds, and as Northwest Arkansas moves into autumn, the hollow fills with shades of gold, orange, and amber. The easy walking trail and natural setting also make it a beautiful place to capture family photos, senior portraits, or updated headshots while exploring the area.
Peter Van Winkle saw potential in this hollow. He found timber, transportation routes, and access to communities that needed what his mill produced. From there, lumber traveled across the region, becoming part of homes, businesses, and landmarks that helped shape
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