Mississippi County’s Big Lake region was the site of a forty-year conflict between local hunters and wealthy northerners who came to hunt the area’s abundant game.
Big Lake was created by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 and the deer, fish and fowl in the area provided a steady source of food for local residents for generations. After railroads came to northeast Arkansas in the 1870s, the locals made good money selling the game to northern restaurants. But wealthy hunters followed, buying land and leasing hunting clubs to push the local hunters out.
Physical altercations soon broke out between local residents and the visiting sportsmen, and several lodges and hunting clubs were burned. As overhunting seriously reduced wildlife populations across the U.S., Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty in 1913 and established the Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 1915. Legislators created the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission that same year, and new regulations ended the Big Lake wars.
Learn more about the Big Lake Wars at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
