Marble Falls, Arkansas

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Marble Falls is an unincorporated community in Newton County, Arkansas, United States. It lies along Arkansas's National Scenic 7 Byway between Harrison and Jasper. The Marble Falls Post Office is specifically located in the parking lot of the now defunct theme park called Dogpatch USA.

[edit] History

A Choctaw Indian named Ah-Che-To-Mah was the first settler known to have acquired title to land in the vicinity of Marble Falls. The waterfall once supplied power for a flour mill, cotton gin, and a saw mill. Peter Bellah built the original water-powered grist mill there about 1840, and this mill was later rebuilt and remodeled by several different owners. The community was originally named Marble City, after the marble that was quarried nearby. A block of marble quarried there is part of the Washington Monument. Marble City became known as a health resort in the 1880's, through the advertisements of businessmen such as Dr. Silas Shruggs Stacey. The first post office was established September 24, 1883, and the first postmaster, Mander Wilcockson, officially re-named the community Wilcockson. Absalom C. Phillips added the cotton gin about 1890. After 1900, the town began to fade away, and the mills and gin were destroyed sometime in the early 1900's. Albert Raney, Sr., who became postmaster in 1934, had the official name changed to Marble Falls. ^[1] The area was known by that name until 1966 when the Raney property was purchased by the developers of Dogpatch USA. The developers had the area's postal designation changed to Dogpatch, and it would appear that way on highway maps. The theme park closed in 1993, and in 1997 the citizens of the area voted unanimously to change the postal designation back to Marble Falls, the name it has today.