The Lake Ouachita Vista Trail is affectionately known as LOViT by the locals. This trail was developed as a labor of love for a group of volunteers known as the Lake Ouachita Citizen Focus Committee. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) assembled the group in 2001 to get citizen input about the lake. In 2002, the group proposed building an information center on the south side of Lake Ouachita. The trail plan was developed to accommodate this, with the goal of ultimately connecting six resorts, six recreation areas, two US Forest Service camp areas. The 44-mile LOViT would connect them all, running along the lake’s southern shore. The committee gained support for the trail from a variety of state, local, and federal agencies. The trail was completed with grants, matching in-kind work, and donations. Today, both hikers and bikers enjoy the scenic beauty of the LOViT. The trail was dedicated with a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 28,2014.
It's important to note that the LOViT is adjacent to federal forestry land that is often hunted. Trail users should wear "hunter's orange" vests or caps to avoid being mistaken for wildlife.
Authorization to build Lake Ouachita was created on the Ouachita River by the USACE by a Senate flood control bill in 1944. Arkansas Power and Light Company (now known as Entergy) originally planned to dam the river to harness its hydroelectric power and began buying land to create the lake in the early 1920s. AP&L created Remmel Dam and Carpenter Dam, creating lakes Catherine and Hamilton, but held off on creating Lake Ouachita because of the economy. In 1941, the company's permit to construct the lake was terminated and the authorization passed to the USACE so they could create a dam to control flooding of the Ouachita River. Blakely Dam, which created Lake Ouachita was completed in 1952. A hydroelectric power plant began construction and electricity was contracted to AP&L starting in 1955. The USACE turned over use of the dam and lake to the state in 1956.
Today, Lake Ouachita provides the economic boost to tourism, but the river was important to other cultures long before it was dammed to create recreation, hydroelectricity, and tourism. Native Americans called the area Washita, which means "good hunting grounds." The French who explored in the 17th and 18th centuries used the spelling that is used today. There was not a Ouachita or Washita tribe. Instead, the Native Americans who lived in this area were members of the Quapaw and Caddo tribes.
In the early 1800s, there were no Native Americans living in the Ouachita River valley, although archeologists have uncovered evidence that proves this was not always the case. A Works Projects Administration crew found several Caddo mounds in 1939. That site is now under Lake Ouachita. Other archaology discoveries in the area show habitation between 1000 BC and 1000 AD, the Woodland period.
Native Americans along the Ouachita River used the local novaculite to make tools such as arrowheads and chipping stones. The fact that novaculite tools from the Ouachita region have been found from sites in other states, archeologists have determined that Native American trade among the river tribes can be traced back to 6000 to 1000 BC. Some stone spear points found in the Lake Ouachita region indicate that small groups of people were living in the area around the end of the Ice Age. The oldest findings from the lake region date the area back to the Paleoindian Period, 11,500 to 10,500 BC. At this time, they would have used their stone spear points to hunt bison, mammoth, or mastodon.