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Run for the Hills--And Relax
By Arline Chandler
What could be more relaxing than a hideaway cave--a rather
luxurious cave, that is? Longbow, a property with two rustic and romantic,
cave-like cabins in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains, is total privacy and
complete communion with nature. No neighbors dropping in. No deadlines
to meet. And no phones, TVs, or door bells to distract from a hammock
gently swaying under the shelter of a sandstone overhang.
World famous archer, Ben Pearson built the property's original
cabin after answering an ad for the 444-acre Longbow in the Wall Street
Journal. Located near Prim, Arkansas, Pearson found a wild game paradise
with cold, clear springs, creeks spilling into waterfalls, and massive
sedimentary rocks jutting up from a pre-historic sea bed. He imagined
a get-away cabin built between a sheer cliff and a huge sandstone next
to a waterfall splashing into a blue-green pool.A hunter who always preferred
his bow and arrow over a gun, Pearson traveled the world on successful
hunts for polar bears and grizzlies, wild boar, cougars, and pronghorn
antelope.
 "When
Dad began bow hunting in the state of Arkansas, one was fortunate to simply
see a deer track," his son, Ben Pearson, Jr. says. "But in 1955,
he connected with a fine eight-point, which was the state's second recorded
bow kill."
Ben Jr. relates that despite his dad's world travels, the
famous archer felt a kinship to the Ozarks. The design for his cabin blended
his keen sense of the outdoor world with his family's need for basic creature
comforts. Originally a one-level room with two cave walls and a view of
the 30-foot waterfall spouting from a narrow chute atop layers of time-built
crevices, Ben Pearson completed his retreat in 1967.
Ben, Jr. recalls the cabin and its encompassing hillsides
were a young boy's dream. "I spent carefree days on the property
with my dad, hunting arrowheads, riding horses, hiking, and swimming,"
he says.
With a typical 14-year-old's pluck, he discovered that
the waterfall's chute, timeworn by centuries of creek waters pouring into
the pool, formed a natural waterslide. "After several tries that
bottomed out in the pool, I perfected my stance by leaning back as I plunged
with the force of the water," he states with the recollection of
a teenager's idyllic summers twinkling in his eyes.
Following Ben Pearson's death in 1971, the road washed
out and the cabin sat lonely. Ben, Jr., picking up on his dad's affinity
with the isolated land standing relatively untouched for centuries, took
up the challenge of modernizing the cabin, yet leaving intact the natural
beauty of the deep canyon.
 Remembering
his own boyhood treks up and down steep hillsides to the shelter of sandstone
overhangs with fossils embedded in the ceiling, Ben Jr. put hours of thought
into remodeling the cabin, appropriately named Longbow to commemorate
his dad's first bow. He added modern conveniences in the kitchen plus
a sleeping loft with small windows eye level with the treetops.
Arrowhead motifs decorate the upstairs banister. Horns,
collected by Ben Jr. when he walked behind his dad in the woods, turn
utilitarian in the rustic light fixtures. A natural rock wall rising 20
feet from the living room floor reflects earthy colors from its mineral
deposits.
In a stone planter, which Ben Jr. designed to catch drips
from the wall, he places fossils he and his family have found outside
the cabin. The living area and kitchen, wedged between two cave walls,
overlook the waterfall cascading year-round into the six-foot-deep pool.
Outside, rock steps wind to a poolside patio tucked under a rock ledge.
A barbecue grill, patio chairs and a swaying hammock enhance an afternoon
of reading, daydreaming or solitary plunges into the waters of the still
pool.
Around a curve in the narrow road leading to the cabin's
hidden doorway, Ben Jr. points out a creek bed with bungalow-sized boulders.
Drawing on an imagination inherited from his dad, he constructed a second
two-level cabin, perched over the rushing waters of the creek. Called
Bushmaster in honor of another of his dad's famous bows, the cabin is
situated to be compatible with Longbow if families or friends reserve
both accommodations, yet completely private if strangers share the remote
canyon.
In the Bushmaster cabin, rocks undisturbed for millions
of years form two walls of the bathroom. A whirlpool tub blends rustic
with luxury. Decks on two levels of the new cabin create an ideal landing
for grilling steaks and a perfect vantage point for spotting the Longbow
property's wild turkey, foxes, deer, coyotes, and eagles.
Ben, Jr. says a geologist surmised the rock in the canyon
sheltering the two cabins is possibly 250 million years old. "He
believes it was part of a massive river system that carved out all the
bluffs," Ben Jr. states. "The finer indentations and cracks
came after the river descended. The geologist speculated that huge rocks
may have been a bridge centuries before it collapsed into the creek."
From the weathered sign at Longbow's entrance to the archery
museum and small business conference center in Ben Jr.'s future plans,
every inch of the isolated property kindles the legacy of Ben Pearson's
connection with the wildness of the Ozarks. Descending a narrow, rutted
road from grassy pastures into the deep canyon, the towering moss-covered
bluffs hold the secrets of hunters whose shadows once faded into the camouflage
of the woods. The two cabins, tucked harmoniously into the hills and rocks,
are the only signs of human infringement.
"The canyon changes with the season," Ben Jr.
says. "Summer's stunning green foliage and lush ferns block the beauty
of the bluffs visible through winter's bare trees. On occasional winters,
the waterfall at Longbow freezes from top to bottom. Several times, I've
walked across the iced pool and leaned against the water frozen in motion.
Almost every winter, icicles hang like a giant's beard from the cliffs
where sunlight rarely reaches."
But summer has its pluses, too. Sunsets shoot rays of soft
light directly down the canyon. Reflections dance on the pool and into
the cabin. Spring is a butterfly paradise with fragile colored wings flitting
across the still pool waters to light on dogwoods, wild azaleas, and iris.
Fall turns the canyon walls into a riot of color with sunlight shimmering
red, yellow, and orange from the feet of the lowest bushes to the tips
of native hardwoods.
In any season, Longbow, a world away from paved streets,
flashing lights, and speeding motorists, pays tribute to Ben Pearson and
the men who climbed the hills before him, stalking the game that inhabited
the woods. Pearson, a legend among bow hunters, lives on in the collectible
Ben Pearson bows and arrows and in the offspring of those who are yet
to hide in his Ozark hills--and relax.
Longbow is located near Prim, Arkansas, just seven miles
north of 40,000-acre Greers Ferry Lake. World-record trout and walleye
caught in nearby Greers Ferry Lake and Little Red River. Mountain View
(the Folk Music Capital of the World) is a half-hour drive to the north.
Explore three paved miles inside Blanchard Springs Caverns. Visit The
Folk Center State Park. Horseback riding and dinner theatres available.
Longbow and Bushmaster cabins are open by reservation to
guests year-round and toured for a charge by appointment only. To arrange
a visit to Longbow, contact Ben & Paulette Pearson, P.O. Box 66, Prim,
AR 72130; phone: 870-948-2362. E-mail: longbowben@mvtel.net longbowben@mvtel.net.
Check their website: http://www.globalriver.com/longbow/
Copyright Arline Chandler
Photos by Arline Chandler
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