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The retired manager of the Jacob Wolf House Historic Site is raising alarms about what he calls systematic neglect of Arkansas’s oldest public structure by the state agency charged with its care.
Marlon Mowdy, who managed the nationally significant Norfork site for seven years before retiring in December 2024, met Monday with State Senator Scott Flippo and State Representatives Stetson Painter and Jason Nazarenko to present his concerns about the site’s declining condition and uncertain future.
“It is shameful, in my opinion, that the agency has failed to move that property forward,” Mowdy told the legislators. “And in my opinion, has been outright negligent in not supporting the management and the direction of it.”
The 1829 Jacob Wolf House, located on Highway 5 in Norfork overlooking the confluence of the White and North Fork rivers, holds multiple distinctions that make it irreplaceable. The National Park Service has documented it as the last remaining two-story dogtrot public structure in the United States. It served as the first permanent courthouse for Izard County in Arkansas Territory, and John P. Houston, brother of legendary Texas founder Sam Houston, served as county clerk there.
The site was certified by the National Park Service in 2022 as a Cherokee Trail of Tears interpretive site, making it one of only two “witness sites” in Arkansas to that tragic chapter of American history. The Benge Route of the forced Cherokee removal passed directly through the property in the winter of 1838-1839.
“Not only are we on the National Register of Historic Places, not only is the Wolf House the last remaining two-story dogtrot public structure in the United States, it has also been certified by the National Park Service as a Cherokee Trail of Tears certified interpretive site,” Mowdy said. “It represents not only local and regional and state significance, but obviously national significance.”
A Pattern of Denial
Mowdy spent 30 years working for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism before being tapped as the Wolf House’s first manager when the state took over the property in 2017. Over his tenure, he secured more than $1 million through three phases of Arkansas Natural Cultural Resource Council grants to restore the historic structures, build a new outdoor pavilion, install interpretive exhibits, and make other improvements.
But Mowdy said every request for operational support was denied.
He asked for a full-time interpreter to help manage the site and conduct educational programming. Denied. He requested professional advertising and marketing to attract visitors. Denied. He proposed architectural plans for a new visitor center to replace a dilapidated non-historic log structure that he said looks closed from the outside. Denied. He requested a gift shop. Denied.
“The manager, myself, worked 60 percent of the time without additional employees,” Mowdy said. “When we had to go out on site to manage these very large tours, work the special event, the annual Pioneer Days event, we literally had to close the visitor center to the public because we were so understaffed. That’s unacceptable.”
When Mowdy secured approval for a Phase IV development project that would have added ADA-compliant sidewalks from the parking lot to the new pavilion, the $275,000 grant was cancelled after his retirement. The money was allocated elsewhere.
“So you have a brand new pavilion for the public and staff and whoever to use, but you don’t have access to it,” Mowdy said.
Downsizing After Retirement
Since Mowdy’s departure, the situation has deteriorated further. His full-time manager position was not reopened. Instead, the agency hired a part-time interpreter at $17 an hour to manage the entire property alone. Operating hours were cut from Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., to just 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“They are downsizing this property,” Mowdy said. “They have no intention of future development.”
Mowdy said he returned to visit the site eight months after his retirement and was dismayed at how far it had regressed. He contacted his former supervisor, Scott Kaufman, director of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, to express his concerns.
“I said, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the agency didn’t have plans to just transfer it back to the city or the county,” Mowdy recalled. “And he told me, ‘That’s very plausible.'”
The possibility of transferring the property to Baxter County or the City of Norfork has surfaced in multiple ways, though key details remain unconfirmed.
Norfork Mayor Lisa Harrison told Rep. Nazarenko at an earlier meeting that one of her city council members had attended a meeting in Mountain Home where state agency representatives were present. During that meeting, the council member said, returning the Wolf House to the county or city was discussed as an option for the property’s future.
Neither Mowdy nor Nazarenko has been able to confirm when or where the meeting took place, or its full context.
“I haven’t been able to confirm because I was trying to dig in — hey, where’s this information coming from about sending it back to the county or sending it back to the city — and nobody’s confirmed anything,” Nazarenko said. “And so I think when we go forward, we can sit down with them and kind of hold their feet to the fire. Like, who’s talking about this behind closed doors? What are you talking about? What’s the plan in your heads? Because that’s going to impact us.”
Separately, Gary Clements, the architect who worked on the site’s restoration projects, told Mowdy this summer that Marty Ryall, director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, informed him the state was considering transferring the property.
Neither the county nor Norfork has the resources to properly manage the site, Mowdy said.
A ‘Prized Possession’
Richard Sheid, a retired businessman and community advocate who helped orchestrate the property’s transfer to the state in 2017, also attended Monday’s meeting. Sheid said he initially tried to get the Wolf House into the National Park system, traveling to Washington to testify before Congress, but political changes derailed those efforts.
“Benny Magness and I went down and got Asa Hutchinson to push it through,” Sheid said of the eventual state takeover. “The historical preservation people did not want to take it over then. So Asa said, ‘We’re going to take it over.’ So we can thank Asa Hutchinson for it being what it is.”
Sheid noted the site’s connections to both Sam Houston’s family and the Trail of Tears give it significance beyond typical historic properties.
“It’s got more significance, I think, than just about any site in Arkansas besides the Louisiana Purchase,” Sheid said.
Legislative Protection Sought
Mowdy is asking the legislators to pursue legislative protection for the Wolf House that would ensure its continued operation as a state historic site and provide accountability for its development.
“The public deserves this heritage legacy in all perpetuity,” Mowdy said. “To have an opportunity at success, the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism should be accountable and responsible for best developing, managing and promoting the Jacob Wolf House Historic Site, like the rest of its agency properties. The site must remain in their inventory.”
The Jacob Wolf House Historic Site is currently open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tours are offered at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
