Damascus

Damascus lies in the foothills of the Ozarks, on a plateau surrounded by clear streams. The community’s history includes the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), as well as church and school history and community traditions. The history of a nearby Titan II missile base adds a chapter from the Cold War era to these perspectives.

Landscape and location

Pine Mountain Creek lies north and west of Damascus. Together with its location on the plateau, this gives the area a landscape shaped by both the broader setting of the Ozark foothills and a specifically named waterway. If you’re comparing destinations by their landscapes, these are two different scales: the location in the foothills and the direction in which the creek lies relative to the community.

Traces of the Civilian Conservation Corps

CCC Camp Damascus was established on June 1, 1935, to rehabilitate farmland in the Damascus area. Three structures from the CCC era remain at the Camp Damascus site. A stone entrance arch dating from 1936 bears the inscriptions “CO-3781” and “V-CCC.” The site also includes a stone arched dining table built around 1935 and a well completed in 1935. Its four-pointed arch is made of stone buttresses. The dates and inscriptions give each structure its own historical connection.

The Damascus CCC Camp No. 3781 Historic District is a collection of stone structures associated with a Civilian Conservation Corps facility in Damascus. The CCC Worker Statue also recalls this history: it is located at the former site of Company 3781, SCS-5, on private land belonging to the Dipert family. The private nature of the property should be respected. The story of the CCC is thus centered both on surviving stone structures and on a clearly identified connection to a former site.

Churches, school, and local history

Fowler Cemetery was established around 1903 in the Damascus area. Nominated for the Arkansas Register of Historic Places, it is recognized as a locally significant surviving record of the rural families who settled in the Damascus area in the late 19th century. The cemetery’s history is thus connected to the early settlement of the surrounding rural area.

The history of the churches and school buildings also spans different periods and uses. The Baptist Church in Damascus was completed in 1889 and later used as a school building. The Damascus Gymnasium was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 4, 1992. The Church of Christ is considered the oldest church in the Damascus community. Taken together, these details show different facets of local building and education history: a church building later used as a school, a gymnasium with a historic register listing, and a church regarded as the oldest in the community.

Candy pulling during the sorghum harvest is another part of the community’s history. The activity was popular in Damascus during this time. Its connection to the harvest sets this community tradition apart from the area’s building and architectural histories.

Titan II history in the surrounding area

Construction began in 1961 on a nearby Titan II missile base north of Damascus. The facility became operational on December 18, 1963. Another historical milestone followed in 1980: a Titan II missile exploded one mile north of Damascus in the 1980 disaster. The chain of events began with a fuel and oxidizer leak after an Air Force serviceman dropped a socket wrench that punctured the missile’s casing. The two dates—the start of base construction and the disaster years later—offer different reference points for the Titan II history of the surrounding area.

Several themes come together to give you a sense of Damascus: the landscape of the Ozark foothills, CCC history, local churches and school buildings, and community traditions. The Titan II events add historical context from the surrounding area.

Discover more destinations: Conway, Greenbrier

For the overview of the wider travel area: Faulkner.