In the early 1950s, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers completed a new channel for the Arkansas River that cut off the 6-mile “bend” of Holla Bend, a project that was part of the long-term development of the river for flood control and mitigation and future use of the river for navigation.
Pope County’s Holla Bend was now a 4,000-acre island on the south side of the river, accessible by land only through neighboring Yell County.
The land having been acquired by the federal government in advance of the project was seen by many as an ideal refuge for migrating wild birds. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC), seeing the potential for a refuge, asked the Corps about acquiring title of the island. They were told that the process of acquiring the land could begin after the Corps turned the land back to the General Services Administration (GSA).
When the island was turned over to the GSA, they were advised by the Corps that the land was surplus and the Arkansas AGFC applied for it. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Department of the Interior, was also contacted and saw immediate merit in the establishment of a federal refuge. AGFC, delighted with that, withdrew in favor of the federal service.
At this point, local interests intervened. The Russellville Chamber of Commerce protested the transfer for refuge purposes, saying that the Pottsville school district would lose the potential for $74 a year in taxes that would be due if the land were sold to farmers adjacent to Holla Bend.
The practice at the time, according to the GSA, was that the area would have to go on private sale. Private agricultural interests and local opposition “clouded” the Wildlife Service’s chances for a time.
However, rule changes in the Department of the Interior and work to convince opponents eventually won out.
In August 1957, title to the Holla Bend lands was officially transferred from the General Service Administration to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.