The Foam, The Proms and more… Farewell, Hurricane Lake Waterfall

The waterfall can be seen in the aerial map under the yellow lines that show a fork in the road.

Local residents may mourn the loss of a landmark along Highway 5 North, outside Hurricane Lake Estates. There has been a cascading waterfall at the entrance to the neighborhood for years, where students have posed for prom photos, as well as families and wedding parties gathering to capture a moment of beauty. The name of the street is Waterfall Way.

In a recent article, I posted pictures of the widening plan for Highway 5 North from the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT). Click to see the whole plan. I’ve provided the section of the plans (above) that shows where the waterfall is… was.

As of this week, the waterfall is no more. I knew the plans called to remove it, but I did not know exactly when it would happen or how long the process would take. The following are photos from the various states of waterfall-ness and non-waterfall-ness. After the photo gallery, see some interesting video from one of the times someone put soap in the waterfall and blew it up with foam.

Above photo by Google Street View – Sep 2016

Above Photo by Shelli Poole March 17, 2019

Above Photo by Roger Poole March 21, 2019

VIDEO:

On August 14th, 2016, I managed to finally get video of something that happened frequently at this waterfall- no, not prom pictures. Rather it is the occasional sudsing of the water. I don’t know what sort of bubbling agent people would put in the waterfall, but I imagine, given the rushing waters, it only takes a dash of soap to get the foam to rise. Here are the videos and photos from the day I caught it. In the following text, I call it a fountain instead of a waterfall. It doesn’t matter anymore what you should call it. It’s gone.

Video: Fountain Gets Foamed on Last Day Before School

On Sunday, August 14, 2016, it looked like someone needed a last hurrah (a.k.a., prank) for the summer break from school. This is soap of some kind causing the fountain at Hurricane Lake Estates in Benton to foam out of control. The videos are by Shelli Poole. The first video is actually an update from a few hours after the pictures and other video were taken. Apparently, someone wanted to keep the foam going and dumped in more soap. The foam was back up, higher than ever, clinging all over the bushes and floating the street. Videos by Shelli Poole. Photos by Cheryl Smith.