Spadra Park

Spadra Park sits on the Arkansas River where it widens into Lake Dardanelle, a short drive south of downtown Clarksville. It is run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and it does three jobs at once: a small riverside campground, a launch point for boats heading out onto the lake, and a stop on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

The campground is compact — 29 sites, 24 of them with electric hookups — with paved back-in pads long enough for big rigs, two boat ramps and a marina next door. Google reviewers rate it 4.6 out of 5 across nearly 200 reviews, and the comments come back to the same things: level sites, clean bathhouses and the view across the water at sunset.

Most sites have 30-amp electric service and many add a water connection. The pads are paved back-ins; Recreation.gov lists the longest at 65 feet, so large fifth wheels and motorhomes fit without the usual squeeze. Tents are welcome on the same sites. There is a dump station with fresh water, flush-toilet restrooms and individual shower rooms, plus a playground and a group picnic shelter that can be reserved.

Sites are booked through Recreation.gov, where the reservation season runs from March through October. The park itself stays open year-round, so a winter visit is possible — expect fewer neighbours and fewer services. Check-in is from 4 p.m.

Lake Dardanelle is a 34,300-acre reservoir on the Arkansas River, known across the region for largemouth bass, crappie and catfish; it hosts bass tournaments through much of the year. Spadra’s two ramps put you straight onto it, and the adjacent Spadra Marina covers last-minute boating and fishing needs.

Even if you never launch a boat, the bank here is good for an evening with a rod. The river is a working waterway, so give the navigation channel and passing barge traffic a wide berth.

Long before the lake, this was the river town of Spadra. The federal government opened a trading post here around 1819, and the settlement served as the first seat of Johnson County until Clarksville took the title in the early 1830s — in part, local history says, because Spadra flooded too often.

In the 1830s Spadra was a steamboat landing on the water route of the Trail of Tears, and the National Park Service counts the park as a site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. Wayside panels overlooking the river tell that story. Later the town turned to coal: the Spadra field, discovered in 1840, made mining Johnson County’s leading industry by the 1880s. Little of the town survives, but the marina and park occupy roughly where it stood.