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Volunteers with the North Central Arkansas Master Naturalists have restored the garden beds at the Collier Homestead at Tyler Bend on the Buffalo National River. They planted native species that would have grown there when the Collier family lived on the site.
The work adds an authentic touch to one of the park’s best-known historic spots. Buffalo National River staff thanked the volunteers for their effort and said the period plantings help preserve the site’s history. Park staff encouraged visitors to stop by and see the work.
The homestead was the home of Solomon “Sod” Collier, his wife, Ida Mae, and two of their seven children. The family moved from Kentucky and claimed the land in 1932. They homesteaded the property almost 100 years after the first settlers reached the Buffalo River.
By then the best land was gone. Earlier settlers had claimed the more fertile ground near the water, leaving rockier ridgetops behind. The Colliers took one of the last parcels available along the river.
The family settled in under the Homestead Act of 1862, which let citizens claim public land by living on it and improving it. Sod built the cabin by hewing logs and sealing the gaps with clay. The family caught rainwater from the roof in a cistern out front, which spared them a daily walk to the spring.
The Colliers worked through the Great Depression with little to spare. They cleared and farmed the land and raised crops including corn, oats, beans, pumpkins, peaches and apples. Sod raised hogs and cattle and also hunted and fished along the Buffalo.
Ida Mae gardened on the property and foraged medicinal plants. That history gives the restored beds a direct tie to the family’s daily life. The volunteers chose plants that matched what would have grown there in the Colliers’ time.
The family met the requirements of the Homestead Act and earned the patent on 40 acres in 1937. Sod and Ida Mae stayed until 1962, living without running water or electricity. The National Park Service now preserves the cabin and grounds as a look at early Ozark farm life.
The homestead sits near St. Joe and is reached by a short, easy trail from the Tyler Bend Visitor Center. A brochure about the Colliers is available at the center.
