Queen Wilhelmina Lodge

The castle in the clouds

This nice hotel is in a remote location on top of a ridge on the Talimena Scenic Highway.
The hotel has all the usual facilities, and we enjoyed our two wintery nights there. It's a cozy place and we felt it would have been a great place to use as a base for exploring the hills of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.
The building is on the National Historic Register - it was built in the late 1890s and named in honour of the then Dutch queen.
It was built by the Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Gulf Railroad to encourage people to travel! The scheme was a failure, and the hotel was abandoned. It was reincarnated in the 50s, then again after a disastrous fire in the mid 70s.

Unique Quality: The rooms are a bit cramped, but adequate.
Good restaurant, but the menu was a bit limited.
Deer come to shelter in the lee of the buildings from the fierce winds. They are very tame, and the children enjoyed playing with them.
There are short (and long) trails from the hotel doorway through the woods and along the ridge.

• Opinion of Price: N/A

Queen Wilhelmina Lodge Photo: Queen Wilhemina's deer

---

Was this Queen Wilhelmina Lodge review helpful?