Sunset on Greers Ferry Lake Arkansas

This is a watercolor painting of the sun setting on one of Arkansas' most beautiful and popular lakes. It is Greers Ferry Lake in Heber Springs... more

by Vivian Cook

Title

Sunset on Greers Ferry Lake Arkansas

Artist

Vivian Cook

Medium

Painting - Watercolor

Description

This is a watercolor painting of the sun setting on one of Arkansas' most beautiful and popular lakes. It is Greers Ferry Lake in Heber Springs Arkansas about 80 miles north of Little Rock.This lake was created by building a huge dam on the Little Red River. Many of the old timers didn't want to have their great little fishing river disturbed. Alter all you could catch some really nice catfish and brim on that river. But the Little Red was often flooding many little towns below Heber Springs and flood control was needed. The Greers Ferry Dam was started in 1959. But before they could start working on it land had to be acquired because 40,500 acres of land was going to flood because of this this dam. Many of the people of this area were living on family farms that had belonged to the first settlers of Arkansas. I know this because my Father's family was some of the very first families to live in that area. Some of Father's family had come to Arkansas in the mid 1700's and some of his ancestors werre already here,the Native Americans. So it was very hard for the residents to leave their farms, communities, churches, etc. Even the Cemeteries had to be relcoated and that was another troubling matter as you could imagine. This is also a lake that was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy on Oct. 3rd 1963. Arkansas was very honored to have him visit our state just a few months before his untimely and tragic death. He said that," Greers Ferry Lake and others like it were an investment in Arkansas and the Nations future." We will never forget his dedication of our beautiful lake because a lovely memorial to him is overlooking the Lake and River. Because I love this Lake and my family connection to this area I decided to paint a picture to let others see how beautiful it really is. i like to camp, picinic, swim, bike ride and fish in this area and love to see the sunset on my favorite lake.

Uploaded

March 23rd, 2013