ROGERS — William Hope “Coin” Harvey came to Northwest Arkansas in 1900, bought 320 acres in a lush valley four miles southeast of Rogers and started a fabulous resort which he named Monte Ne, meaning mountain water.
He dammed the creek and made a small lake with crystal-clear water that flowed through the valley. On the bank of the lake, he built the Hotel Monte Ne in 1901, just east of the present-day boat ramp at Monte Ne.
Always thinking on a grand scale, Harvey, in 1904, hired A.O. Clarke, a noted architect from St. Louis, to design five new hotels. Harvey must have been a fantastic salesman for he persuaded many of the most prominent businessmen in Northwest Arkansas to buy stock in a new company, the Club House Hotel and Cottage Company.
Harvey was president and Clarke was the architect and superintendent of construction. The plan for the hotels consisted of a central Club House Hotel and four cottage or row hotels made of logs with concrete trim. The row hotels were to be named Arkansas Row, Missouri Row, Texas Row and Louisiana Row, varying in length between 300 and 450 feet.
The Missouri Row Hotel and Club House Hotel were the first buildings designed by Clarke and construction was started immediately. Missouri Row and the main Club House Hotel were aligned along the lake west of Hotel Monte Ne.
The Club House Hotel was to be “as palatial as a Roman imperial villa” with an 18-foot-high waterfall in the lobby. The three-story building was to be made of stone and concrete with concrete floors and roof. It was designed as such so guests could walk around on the roof and view the scenery from its towers and battlements.
Soon after construction started, trouble arrived in the form of labor problems.
In order to save time and money, Harvey changed the work time from nine to 10 hours per day with no additional pay. In May 1905, a strike by about 30 carpenters and stoneworkers caused a delay in the construction of the two hotels. Harvey was infuriated and fired the strikers.
Construction of the Club House Hotel was abandoned, and all available workers were used to complete the Missouri Row Hotel.
The partially built Club House Hotel was never finished, and even today, parts of the concrete and stone walls stand like a monument between the ruins of the Hotel Monte Ne and the Missouri Row.
So, where exactly are the remains of this fabulous hotel shown in the picture? During my years of research, I was led to believe the long stone foundation between the boat ramp and Missouri Row was the remains of the Hotel Monte Ne.
In my book, “The Lost Town of Monte Ne,” and while leading tours of Monte Ne, I always identified the prominent foundation by the boat ramp as the Hotel Monte Ne. I thought the foundation of the Club House Hotel must have disappeared during the last 107 years.
It was an exciting surprise last May when John Martin, a local railroad enthusiast, emailed me and explained I and others were wrong about the identity of the ruins just below the parking lot at the boat ramp. During his research of the Monte Ne Railroad, he overlaid current satellite images with the 1903 plat map of Monte Ne and saw that the foundation, formerly thought to be the Hotel Monte Ne, matched perfectly the picture from my book of the Club House Hotel, complete with the round towers.
One look at his evidence and it was clear he was right. The remains of the Hotel Monte Ne are on the east side of the ramp and consist of only a little rubble.
Beaver Lake is full now, but during normal water level, it is interesting to explore the ruins of the luxury hotels and buildings of this lost town.
James F. Hales is an author and historian. His column appears monthly in the Rogers Morning News. Information came from the book “The Lost Town of Monte Ne” by Hales and articles from the 1904 Rogers Democrat.