Corps seeks partners to preserve Monte Ne

The Army Corps of Engineers is looking for partners to help preserve what’s left of the buildings at Monte Ne on Beaver Lake, corps officials said Tuesday.

The Monte Ne area has become a party area for locals, according to Benton County Sheriff’s Office deputies and the corps.

A padlocked, chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounds the remnants of a three-story tower that is covered in graffiti.

Guardrails and rocks have been placed near the roadside to keep four-wheelers and other vehicles from getting too close, and signs warn that the property is owned by the U.S. government, but many have been spray-painted over.

Trash from late-night — and sometime daylight visitors — litters the site. People have had to be rescued from the ruins — one person was stuck in a chimney this summer.

“There was a lot more activity at Monte Ne this summer,” said Sean Harper, operations project manager at the lake. “It just looked like somebody was going to get hurt. The safety issue is what is driving this.”

Coin Harvey completed Hotel Monte Ne at the turn of the 20th century and, within a few years, the resort expanded to include two more hotels, a tennis court and the first indoor swimming pool in Arkansas. Harvey built a railroad spur linking Monte Ne to the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad line and purchased a gondola to ferry tourists from the depot across a spring-fed lagoon to the hotels.

“I just want to thank the corps, after 45 years, for recognizing there’s a problem out there,” said Dave Bisbee, a former Benton County judge and a resident of the area. “There’s two publics out there. There’s the one that visits every year or two and one that lives there all the time. If it’s restored, it needs to be staffed.”

Corps officials said it would cost about $240,000 to restore and preserve the area, and about $132,000 to demolish the tower and let the area return to a natural habitat.

“We’re looking for someone to spearhead interested groups to bring Monte Ne as part of another historic site in the area,” said Chris Page, the corps’ district archeologist. “The corps can’t go out and lobby businesses for money like private groups or nonprofits.”

The corps needs about $125,000 to complete the preservation plan, Harper said, and the organization needs an idea if that can be done within three months.

“We don’t have to have a formal agreement in three months, and we don’t have to have the money in hand,” Page said. “But we do need someone to step forward. We’ve had plans for Monte Ne before and they just kind of languished.”

The three-month time frame, especially during the holidays, did not sit well with some.

“I think everybody here wants to preserve what we’ve got,” said Jim Hales. “I think it would be a sin if we didn’t. But we need more time. I know I’m not going to think about anything until the end of the year except maybe football games.”

“I just want to thank the corps, after 45 years, for recognizing there’s a problem out there,” said Dave Bisbee, a former Benton County judge and a resident of the area. “There’s two publics out there. There’s the one that visits every year or two and one that lives there all the time. If it’s restored, it needs to be staffed.”

Page said he wanted to do everything possible to restore the site before beginning paperwork needed to demolish a historical site.

“As the district archeologist, I really don’t want tearing down the tower at Monte Ne on my resume,” Page said.