In spite of the geographic isolation of the Ozark area, national events did have effects on the residents of the Buffalo River area.
The Civil War along the Buffalo was not a matter of large scale military maneuvers of opposing armies. Instead regiments or companies skirmished with guerilla bands or one side bushwhacked the other to gain resources and supplies.
The Great Depression came to Arkansas long before the stock market crash of 1929. Floods, failing crop prices, and drought crippled the mostly agricultural state. By 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, initiated federal programs that were developed to assist in the country's financial recovery. At least 2 historic homesteads along the Buffalo have concrete outhouses provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The development at Buffalo Point was begun by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938.