The Saline River runs 204 miles from the Ouachita Mountains to Felsenthal, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas calls it the last free-flowing river in the Ouachita basin.
Its lower reach runs through Cleveland, Bradley, Drew and Ashley counties. In Bradley County it forms the eastern line with Drew County.
From the Ouachita Mountains to Felsenthal
The Saline rises north of Benton in the Ouachita Mountains. Four forks join near Riverside in Saline County. The river then crosses Saline, Grant, Dallas, Cleveland, Bradley, Drew and Ashley counties before it reaches the Ouachita River.
The Encyclopedia describes a mountain stream at the river’s origin and a Delta-type bayou near its mouth at Felsenthal in Union County. Rison in Cleveland County, Warren in Bradley County and Longview in Ashley County are among the communities near the river.
Timber on the Saline
Steamboats once carried cotton, staves and timber down the Saline each winter and spring to New Orleans and Monroe, Louisiana. The head of navigation was at Bridges Bluff in Cleveland County.
The Encyclopedia says Slavonian families became important in cutting and shipping staves in the early 1900s. Shipping slackened after the railroads arrived in 1880. The steamboat Gate City sank near Warren on October 14, 1913. The Encyclopedia does not name the wood species of the staves.
Bottomland Hardwoods in the Lumber Record
The Encyclopedia’s Timber Industry entry separates south Arkansas pine country from the river bottoms. It says hardwood grows in the swampy river bottoms.
The Encyclopedia’s entry on Anthony Timberlands records one mill that draws on those bottoms. The Beirne mill in Clark County produces hardwood lumber, primarily oak. The timber comes from the bottomlands of the Ouachita, Saline and Little rivers and area creeks.
At the southern tip of Bradley County, the Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1970. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says it holds the world’s largest green-tree reservoir, at 15,000 acres. The refuge also lies in Ashley and Union counties.
The U.S. Forest Service runs a Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research. Its stated mission is to provide the science to manage southern bottomland hardwood and wetland forests. The center has research staff in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Furniture Woods Named by the Forest Products Laboratory
The Wood Handbook from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory lists species groups, not cutting sites.
- Red oak group: Principal species include southern red, cherrybark, Nuttall, water and willow oak.
- White oak group: Principal species include white, overcup and swamp chestnut oak.
- Black walnut: The range runs from Vermont to the Great Plains and south into Louisiana and Texas.
- Pecan hickory: The range runs from central Texas and Louisiana to Missouri and Indiana.
The Handbook does not say where a given board was cut. Ask a furniture maker which species group a board belongs to and where the mill sawed it. Read the difference between the two oak groups in White Oak vs Red Oak for a Dining Table.
Furniture From Saline River Country
Saline River Workshop’s collections page lists a Saline Creek series with a kitchen island and a work island. Its contact page lists a workshop in Wilmar, Arkansas, which the Encyclopedia of Arkansas places in Drew County.
For the Bradley County lumber story behind the region, read Bradley Lumber Company of Warren, Arkansas and Warren, Arkansas Hardwood and Custom Furniture.
Sources:
- Saline River, Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
- Timber Industry, Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
- Anthony Timberlands, Inc., Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
- Bradley County, Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
- Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, USDA Forest Service.
- Characteristics and availability of commercially important woods, Wood Handbook, USDA Forest Service.