
Location of the Boston Mountains.

Buffalo River from river trail overlook near Steel Creek in the Boston Mountains.
The 'Boston Mountains' are a high and deeply dissected
plateau located in northern
Arkansas and eastern
Oklahoma. The Oklahoma portion of the range is locally referred to as the
Cookson Hills. The rocks of the region are essentially little disturbed, flat-lying
sedimentary layers of the
Paleozoic age. The highest ridges and peaks are capped by Pennsylvanian
sandstone and
shale. The deeply eroded valleys are cut into Mississippian
limestone and below that layer the
Ordovician dolomite.
The Boston Mountains form the southwestern part of the
Ozark plateau where they are the highest and most rugged portion of the Ozarks. Summits can reach elevations of just over 2,560 feet with valleys 500 to 1,550 feet deep. Turner Ward Knob (TWK) is the highest named peak. Located in western
Newton County, Arkansas, its elevation is 2,463 feet. Nearby, five unnamed peaks have elevations at or slightly above 2,560 feet. Two of these highest peaks are located 2.2 miles west of TWK, one being the location of the Buffalo Lookout fire tower. The other three highest peaks are located 4-5 miles SSW of TWK along Arkansas State Highway 16.
The Boston Mountains are the source of rivers and streams that flow out from the mountains in all directions. Within a 3 mile radius of a point just west of the summits discussed above are located the sources of the
White River, the
Buffalo River, the Kings River, War Eagle Creek, and Little Mulberry Creek. Other rivers and streams having their headwaters in the Boston Mountains include the
Illinois River, the
Mulberry River,
Lee Creek, Frog Bayou, Big Piney Creek, Illinois Bayou, and the
Little Red River. To the south, the
Arkansas River valley separates the Boston Mountains from the
Ouachita Mountains.
In Arkansas the Boston Mountains are found in the following counties:
Boone,
Carroll,
Cleburne,
Conway,
Crawford,
Franklin,
Independence,
Johnson,
Madison,
Newton,
Pope,
Searcy,
Stone,
Van Buren, and
Washington.
In Oklahoma the Boston Mountains are found in these counties:
Adair,
Cherokee,
Muskogee,
Sequoyah, and
Wagoner.
''[NAD83 geographic coordinates for TWK are N35.8631°, W093.4544°. Coordinates for the 5 unnamed highest peaks are N35.8637°, W093.4931°; N35.8607°, W093.4935°; N35.8151°, W093.4968°; N35.8126°, W093.4984°; and N35.7990°, W093.5005°]''
External link
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Boston Mountain MLRA description.

EcoRegion-IV regions of the Boston Mountains. Click to enlarge.

Elevation map of the Boston Mountains. Click to enlarge.