A tiny 19th-century settlers' graveyard high on Rich Mountain near Queen Wilhelmina State Park, tied to the long-told ghost-light legend of a teenage girl who froze to death searching for help during a brutal winter.
Talimena Scenic Drive (Highway 88), Mena, AR 71953
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free; located on public land in the Ouachita National Forest, reached by a short trail off Highway 88.
Access
Limited Access
Reached by a short, steep mountain trail off the highway; uneven forest ground with native-stone grave markers.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · 19th-century pioneer settlers' cemetery in the Ouachita National Forest · Founded as a family plot by James Witherspoon; ~20 Rich Mountain residents interred · Preserved historic site along the Talimena National Scenic Byway
Rich Mountain rises to nearly 2,700 feet in western Arkansas, the second-highest peak in the state, its long ridge now traced by the Talimena National Scenic Byway through the Ouachita National Forest. In the 19th century the mountain supported a scattered community of hardscrabble settlers, some of whom were Civil War refugees and Union sympathizers who moved to the remote ridge to escape the violence and conscription of the war years. They farmed thin, rocky soil and endured harsh mountain winters.
The Rich Mountain Pioneer Cemetery sits on the mountain's slope just below the crest, in what local records describe as the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 10, Township 1 South, Range 32 West. According to area genealogical accounts, James Witherspoon set aside a roughly two-acre plot as a family cemetery; he, his wife, and at least one of his children were buried here. Over time about twenty residents of the Rich Mountain community were interred in the graveyard. Only one grave bears a carved tombstone; the remainder are marked with native field stones, a common practice among poor frontier communities.
The mountain community gradually dispersed, and the surrounding land was acquired by the federal government beginning in the 1920s as part of what became the Ouachita National Forest, with Queen Wilhelmina State Park established along the ridge. The cemetery survives as a preserved historic site, reachable by a short trail off Highway 88 or by hiking roughly 1.25 miles from Queen Wilhelmina Lodge. It is one of the few visible reminders of the families who once made their homes on the high ridge.
Sources
The Rich Mountain ghost light is one of western Arkansas's older and best-documented mountain legends, recorded by ExploreSouthernHistory.com and retold in regional outlets including OnlyInYourState. The story holds that during the 19th century a family living atop Rich Mountain was struck by sickness during an exceptionally cold winter. With the rest of the household too ill to move, the family's teenage daughter went out into the cold to fetch water (or, in some tellings, firewood) for her ailing mother. Caught in the open by a pack of wolves, she climbed a tree for safety and was unable to come down; she was found the next day frozen to death in the branches where she had taken shelter.
She was buried in the small cemetery on the mountain slope, and for generations afterward local residents reported seeing strange lights in the trees near the graveyard and along the nearby road and woods. The light is interpreted as the girl's spirit, said by some accounts to wander the mountain carrying a lantern as she continues her search for her family's cabin. The sightings have been reported, according to ExploreSouthernHistory.com, 'over the years' by local people long after the mountain's pioneer families had moved away.
Versions of the story name the family as the Wilkersons, though the contemporary historical record for the mountain documents the Witherspoon family as the cemetery's founders, and the specific identity of the girl in the legend has not been confirmed in primary sources. The tale is best understood as enduring oral folklore attached to a real and poignant frontier graveyard rather than a verified individual history. As mountain ghost lights go, it belongs to the same regional family of phenomena as the better-known Gurdon Light elsewhere in Arkansas.
Notable Entities
Hike the short trail off Highway 88 (or roughly 1.25 miles from Queen Wilhelmina Lodge) to the historic settlers' cemetery on the mountain slope, with interpretive context on the Rich Mountain pioneer community.
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