COMMERCIAL LEAGUE BAND

FAYETTEVILLE 1908 (Picture taken by Big Spring at Monte Ne, Arkansas)

The band played concerts and played for dances at Monte Ne.   In 1894 "Coin" Harvey toured Northwest Arkansas. Impressed with the area, he returned in 1900 and purchased 320 acres around Silver Springs, southeast of Rogers. He created the resort of Monte Ne and filled it with hotels, a golf course, an enclosed swimming pool, a bathhouse, a bank, and a dance pavilion.

A railroad spur at Lowell connected Monte Ne with the Frisco Railroad. Arriving tourists were ferried across a lagoon in an imported Italian gondola. Dances, concerts, water sports, fireworks, and fiddling contests were popular attractions.

The advent of the automobile changed travel patterns as driving tours replaced long stays at resorts. By the 1920s Monte Ne was fading. But Harvey continued to build, erecting an amphitheater and base for the "Pyramid," which was to contain an explanation for the fall of civilization, which Harvey believed was imminent. Today the amphitheater and much of what was Monte Ne are covered by Beaver Lake.