About this city
Wickes is a rustic, pristine rural forest community positioned beautifully along the rugged high ridges of the western Ouachita Mountains near the Oklahoma border in Polk County. Settled during the late-19th-century timber expansion boom along the Kansas City Southern Railway, the town has proudly maintained its deep ties to commercial logging and cattle ranching. Wickes is highly celebrated among regional outdoor sports enthusiasts as the strategic wilderness gateway to the Cossatot River, containing some of the wildest whitewater Class IV rapids in the American Mid-South.
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Practical Tourism Metadata
Suggested stay: 1–2 days
Navigate the adrenaline-pumping rapids and massive rocky ledges at Cossatot River State Park-Natural Area, swim in the deep crystal pools at Brushy Creek, and hike the rugged River Corridor Trail.
