Monte Ne

Overview

Coin Harvey's mountain water

Monte Ne sits in a valley about five miles southeast of Rogers, where an arm of Beaver Lake now fills the valley of Monte Ne Branch. In 1900 William Hope Harvey bought 320 acres around a little place called Silver Springs and renamed it Monte Ne. Harvey, a lawyer and author, was best known for Coin's Financial School (1894), and people called him Coin. He meant Monte Ne as a health resort and a planned town.

The resort opened in May 1901. Guests rode a gondola from Italy across a spring-fed lagoon, swam in the first indoor pool in Arkansas and stayed in two huge log hotels, Missouri Row and Oklahoma Row. A five-mile railway brought them from the Frisco line at Lowell, and the town had a bank and a post office. But as more people traveled by car, business fell off, and in the 1920s most of the resort was sold or foreclosed.

Harvey turned to his last project, a 130-foot pyramid to hold a warning for future generations. Only its amphitheater was built before the money ran out. He died at Monte Ne in 1936. In the 1960s the Corps of Engineers dammed the White River, and Beaver Lake covered most of the resort. Lakeside homes now line the hills around it, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, updated in 2024, lists a church, a restaurant and a lakeside launch at Monte Ne today.

Timeline

Resort, pyramid, lake

1. Before 1900A small community called Silver Springs stands near the White River. The 1899 USGS sheet marks it beside Horseshoe Bend.
2. 1900William Hope "Coin" Harvey, author of Coin's Financial School, buys 320 acres and renames the place Monte Ne, "mountain water." In December he forms the Monte Ne Investment Company with $100,000.
3. May 4, 1901The resort opens, with the Hotel Monte Ne finished that April. That July a 50-foot gondola from Italy starts carrying guests on Harvey's new lagoon.
4. Aug 1901A bathhouse opens with a heated 25-by-50-foot indoor pool, the first in Arkansas.
5. 1902–1914The Monte Ne Railway runs about five miles from the Frisco line at Lowell. It changes hands in 1908 and 1910, and passenger service ends in 1914.
6. 1905Missouri Row, a log hotel built of 8,000 logs, opens in September. The Bank of Monte Ne opens the same year.
7. 1909Oklahoma Row opens, with 40 rooms and a three-story concrete tower.
8. 1913The Ozark Trails Association, a good-roads group Harvey founded, holds its first meeting at Monte Ne on July 10.
9. 1920Harvey announces a 130-foot pyramid to hold a message for future generations.
10. 1927Missouri Row and Oklahoma Row are foreclosed and sold. Until 1932 both house the Ozark Industrial College and School of Theology.
11. 1928–1929The amphitheater meant as the pyramid's foyer is dedicated in 1928. The 1929 crash ends the project.
12. 1931–1932Harvey's Liberty Party meets at Monte Ne and nominates him for president. He polls over 53,000 votes nationwide.
13. Feb 11, 1936Harvey dies at Monte Ne and is buried in a concrete tomb beside one of his sons.
14. 1944Missouri Row is sold and torn down.
15. 1960–1966The Corps of Engineers builds Beaver Dam on the White River. Harvey's tomb is moved up the hillside, and by June 1966 the lake is at full height over most of the resort.
16. Feb 2, 1978Monte Ne is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
17. Feb 2023Starting the week of February 20, the Corps removes Oklahoma Row and its three-story tower, citing trespassing, vandalism and damage from a decade of high water. The Democrat-Gazette reports the tower down that week.
18. 2023Part of Oklahoma Row's log section, moved before the flood to the east side of Highway 94 just north of the resort, collapses in a windstorm.
19. Sep 2026A visit video posted September 27 and filmed at low water shows concrete rubble where Oklahoma Row stood, the four-sided fireplace and the amphitheater's back wall. Its narrator says the house lot where Harvey's tomb stands is posted no trespassing.
20. Oct 2026KUAF reports on October 7 that the Rogers Historical Museum's director says the Corps is working on a walking trail with wayside panels at the former tower site.

What's left

Fireplaces, steps and a tomb

For decades the best-known ruin was the three-story concrete tower of Oklahoma Row, which stood at the water's edge and filled with graffiti. The Corps of Engineers began removing Oklahoma Row and the tower the week of February 20, 2023, and a Democrat-Gazette podcast that Friday said the tower had come down that week. A Corps caption written since then says little of Monte Ne remains above water. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry, last updated in January 2024, still says parts of two hotels can be seen, though the same paragraph notes the 2023 removal.

Part of Oklahoma Row's log section had been moved before the flood to the east side of Highway 94, just north of the resort. It collapsed in a windstorm in 2023, and a September 2023 photo shows much of it fallen in and the rest sagging behind caution tape. We don't know who owns that land.

A visit video posted in September 2026 and filmed with the lake low shows concrete rubble and stubs of cellar walls along the shore where Oklahoma Row stood. The same video shows the four-sided fireplace still standing among foundation walls, covered in graffiti, and the amphitheater's back wall and pillar tops at the water's edge, with rows of seats visible under the water. Its narrator says Harvey's tomb sits on the grounds of a house posted no trespassing, and the video shows the tomb only from a distance.

A September 2023 photo shows the Missouri Row fireplace still standing among low foundation walls; Wikipedia describes a four-sided concrete fireplace, pieces of foundation and retaining walls. The amphitheater and the retaining wall built for the pyramid lie in the lake. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says parts of the amphitheater show only at extremely low lake levels, and in 2011 travel writer Kat Robinson reported that its top is clearly visible at 1,113 feet; a 2022 Only In Arkansas guide puts it below 1,111 feet. The lake's lowest level, in January 1977, uncovered the amphitheater and bridges for the first time in more than ten years. In 2006 low water exposed the upper amphitheater and the pyramid's retaining wall again.

Harvey's concrete tomb was moved up the hillside before the lake filled. It stands on private land, which Wikipedia says is visible from the Monte Ne boat launch.

• Missouri Row fireplace and foundations (2023 photo, 2026 video)
• Oklahoma Row rubble along the shore (2026 video)
• Amphitheater wall and seats (low water; 2026 video)
• Pyramid retaining wall (low water only)
• Harvey's tomb (private land, posted no trespassing, 2026 video)
• Collapsed log section of Oklahoma Row, beside Highway 94 (fell in 2023)

The historic maps below show the change. The 1899 and 1901 Fayetteville sheets mark Silver Springs near Horseshoe Bend on the White River, with Cross Hollow and Frisco Springs to the west. The 1958 Rogers sheet, drawn just before the dam, shows Monte Ne as a cluster of buildings on AR 94 along Monte Ne Branch, with Joyzelle Camp to the southwest. By 1979 Beaver Lake fills the valley, and Monte Ne and Monte Ne Shores sit on its shore.

Historic maps

Monte Ne on USGS maps, 1899–1979

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18991:125,00019011:125,00019581:24,00019631:250,00019791:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Rogers is next door, about 13 minutes away. From Little Rock the route runs up I-40 and I-49 into Rogers. Both end at the foot of State Highway 94 Spur, by the lake. We haven't confirmed what's open to visitors there.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Monte Ne in photos

The Oklahoma Row tower standing in high water, May 2018, five years before the Corps removed itThe tower at the end of its path, November 2005The amphitheater during a dry spell, November 2005Visitors on the amphitheater at low water, 2006The retaining wall built for the pyramid, at low water, November 2005The Missouri Row fireplace, September 2023Oklahoma Row's log section, moved beside Highway 94 before the flood, after its 2023 collapse, September 2023

Visitor reports

Been to Monte Ne?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Monte Ne

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arkansas index.

• Blewford16.8 mi SW · Washington
• McGuire18.3 mi S · Washington
• Gaskins21.2 mi NE · Carroll
• Winona Springs21.8 mi E · Carroll
• Carter24.9 mi S · Washington
• Eldorado Springs26.5 mi W · Benton
• Sexton35.5 mi SW · Washington
• Weathers38.1 mi SE · Madison

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Monte Ne", retrieved October 2026: founding company, hotels, railway, bank, pool and gondola, Ozark Trails, pyramid, foreclosures and the college, Missouri Row's fate and remains, Beaver Lake dates, low-water years, tomb location and view from the boat launch, 2023 demolition, the relocated log section's 2023 collapse, National Register date, coordinates (GNIS).
2. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District, "USACE announces preservation and removal of historic resort town Monte Ne", February 9, 2023 (read in the browser): removal dates and order, reasons, Corps ownership, Beaver Lake Project Office phone.
3. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "Monte Ne" photo caption, written after the 2023 removal: little remains above water.
4. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Beaver Lake news releases, read October 22, 2026: December 18, 2024 notice naming the Monte Ne launch ramp as a Christmas-tree drop-off; no Monte Ne access notice since February 2023.
5. Garrett Moore, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, on the planned removal, February 10, 2023: start date, three-week schedule, reasons, planned markers.
6. Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Know the News: After more than 100 years, Monte Ne's historic tower comes down", February 24, 2023: the tower torn down that week.
7. Blazed and Confused 1886, "125 year old ruins in Monte Ne Arkansas," YouTube, posted September 27, 2026 (filming date not given; filmed at low water): Oklahoma Row rubble, the four-sided fireplace, the amphitheater wall and seats, the tomb on a house's grounds and the narrator's report of a no-trespassing sign.
8. KUAF, "Monte Ne's sunken resort history lives on at Rogers Historical Museum", October 7, 2026: most of the resort under the lake, the 2023 tower removal, and the museum director's report of the Corps' walking trail and wayside panels.
9. Julianne Thompson, "Monte Ne: Arkansas's Underwater Resort Revealed," Only In Arkansas, June 4, 2022 (read in the browser): lake level for seeing the amphitheater, private land beside the shoreline walk to it.
10. Encyclopedia of Arkansas, "Monte Ne (Benton County)" by Allyn Lord, updated January 29, 2024: Silver Springs, 320 acres, the name, the pyramid and amphitheater, Beaver Lake, what was still visible, the church, restaurant and launch there now, the 2023 removal.
11. Encyclopedia of Arkansas, "'Coin' Harvey (1851–1936)" by Gaye Bland, updated June 24, 2026: distance from Rogers, the 1931 Liberty Party convention and 1932 vote, Harvey's death and burial, the tomb's move.
12. Kat Robinson, "The Ruins of Monte Ne," Tie Dye Travels, January 19, 2011: amphitheater lake-level threshold, Missouri Row fireplace, the log section moved beside Highway 94, road conditions by the lake.
13. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The Oklahoma Row tower standing in high water, May 2018, five years before the Corps removed it: Littleboybrew, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The tower at the end of its path, November 2005: The stuart, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The amphitheater during a dry spell, November 2005: Doug Wertman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• Visitors on the amphitheater at low water, 2006: The stuart, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The retaining wall built for the pyramid, at low water, November 2005: The stuart, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The Missouri Row fireplace, September 2023: Littleboybrew, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Oklahoma Row's log section, moved beside Highway 94 before the flood, after its 2023 collapse, September 2023: Littleboybrew, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Fayetteville 1899, 1:125,000; Fayetteville 1901, 1:125,000; Rogers 1958, 1:24,000; Tulsa 1963, 1:250,000; Fayetteville 1979, 1:100,000.