A fact that few people know is that Big Fork used to be in Montgomery county, not Polk. It was by an accident (or sheer ignorance) that the county line was changed. Few people lived past Big Fork, up the highway to what is known as Boggy. So they wanted to be annexed into Big Fork, but that was in Montgomery county, and they were in Polk. So they put a bill before the legislature to move that part of the county into Montgomery. However, the person in charge somehow got the map upside down and didn't know his east from west, and as a result the line was moved--but in the wrong direction. Big Fork was moved from Montgomery into Polk county. There was a lot of crying and carrying on, but the only way to change it back was to pass a new bill in the legislature, and it was two years before that body politic would meet again, so they just had to wait. By the time the two years had passed everyone had gotten used to the change so it was just left as it. This all happened in 1879, so a look at the 1860 and 1880 census is needed to see just who lived where.
Big Fork is located along Highway 8, east of Mena. Butcher Knife creek and the Big Fork creek join at the site of the little community, which long ago was quite a little town.
It was home to a blacksmith shop, a post office (housed in the corner of one of the false-front frame stores constructed of rough lumber). The school house, a couple of churches and several residences strung out along the road and up the creeks.
There was a wonderful water mill on Butcher Knife creek. O.J. Smith remembered well its grinding loud sound in the quiet air, and its walls festooned with cobwebs draped with meal dust, swaying in time as the floor danced to the vibration of the turning stones, and the splashing water fell away from the big wheel. There was another water mill on Big Fork, near Opal, the Roberts' Mill, that included a cotton gin along with the grain mill, and there was usually a sawmill set somewhere nearby.
In good weather there were a few old men who would set along a slat bench on the porch of one of the stores, chewing their tobacco and telling tall tales, and a boy or two hanging around, taking it all in.
Local churches used the old Bluff Hole just below the road, for a baptizing place. There was also a footlog across the creek.
Family names are Abernathy, Bates, Edwards, Cox, Spears, Dilbeck, Goss, Fried, Heath, Liles, Widener, and many more.
The community became the subject of conversation when the 20-acre plot of land on the Sulphur Springs road, east of Big Fork, became home to "the pyramids." They structure 54x54, rising 58 feet in the four stories, was built by Dallas Purcell of Mena. Purcell visualized the pyramid as a gathering place for "good people" for social and religious functions. The pyramid's four sides face the four basic directions, north, south, east , and west. The floors are connected by a stairwell, and a square hole in the center of each floor. The tip top was to be capped with a clear plane of class, enabling those inside to the the day and night sky overhead. C.D. Boatwright of Mena was the building contractor. The structure was built in late 1977 and early 1978.
Big Fork was at its largest when the old Slatington mines were in operation. The mines closed in 1909, and Big Fork was left to join the ranks of those seeking to get the virgin timber out of the county and on to a train headed north. Since no trains came near the twon, it dwindled away after