Portal:Geography/Featured article/March, 2008

Monte Ne is an area in the Ozark hills of the White River valley east of Rogers on the edge of Beaver Lake in the U.S. State of Arkansas. From 1901 until the mid-1930s the area was a health resort and ambitious planned community. It was owned and operated by William Hope Harvey, a financial theorist and one time U.S. Presidential nominee. Two of its hotels, "Missouri Row" and "Oklahoma Row", were the largest log buildings in the world. Oklahoma Row's "tower section" is one of the earliest examples of a multi-story cement structure. The tower is the only structure of Monte Ne still standing. Monte Ne introduced the first indoor swimming pool in Arkansas, and was also the site of the only presidential convention ever held in Arkansas.

The Monte Ne resort was not a financial success, due in part to Harvey's management style. All ventures associated with Harvey's original Monte Ne concept were either never completed or experienced bankruptcy, and shortly after his death the property was sold off in lots. The remainder of the resort and town was almost completely submerged after Beaver Lake was created in 1964. All that remains today are foundations and one severely vandalized structure. The area on the edge of Beaver Lake that is still referred to as Monte Ne, is owned and managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and serves mainly as a boat ramp. (more...)