Monte Ne was a health resort and planned community established and operated by William Hope Harvey from 1901 until the mid 1930s. It was located in a valley just east of the town of Rogers, Arkansas, though today its location is mostly under the waters of Beaver Lake. The resort consisted of several hotels, a lake, an indoor swimming pool, a golf course, tennis courts, its own post office and bank, as well as a dedicated train line to conduct guests from Rogers to the resort. In 1932 Monte Ne was the site of the only presidential convention ever held in the state.
Despite Harvey's efforts to publicize his resort and draw both visitors and businesses, Monte Ne was not a financial success. By 1920 the rail line had been sold and abandoned, and the Monte Ne Bank closed. Given these setbacks, and Harvey's belief that civilization was doomed, he began to focus his efforts on building "The Pyramid", a 130 foot tall obelisk that would eventually contain books and objects that reflected human life in the 20th century. Unfortunately, Harvey exhausted his funds constructing an elaborate amphitheater to serve as the pyramid's foundation, and the stock market crash of 1929 ended his hopes of building his pyramid.
After Harvey's death in 1936, the resort's assets passed to his wife who sold them off over the next decade. Some of the resort buildings were repurposed and continued to be used until the 1960's, when the United States Army Corps of Engineers began construction of a dam on the White River, creating Beaver Lake. The lake flooded almost the entirety of the resort, with only the remnants of one hotel tower still regularly visible. This tower was demolished in February 2023 by the Corps of Engineers, citing ongoing vandalism and health hazards posed by the deteriorating structure.
Before Harvey
The area that would become Monte Ne was known to have had two establishments often considered essential to a pioneer settlement, a grist mill and a distillery. It is unknown when the distillery was built. It was owned in the 1830s by Abe McGarrah and his brother-in-law; they also operated a small store. The distillery's output each day was given as 30 gallons by the Federal whiskey gauger who resided in the area. The grist mill was built in 1856, and was owned by J.R. Pettigrew. It would later be owned by James Wyeth and Amelia Crowder Blake, the parents of Betty Blake, who is often referred to as the "Leading Lady" of Rogers, and who married entertainer Will Rogers in 1908. In 1875, the post office in the area changed its name from Mountain Springs to Pettigrew's Mill. The Blakes owned the mill until 1882, when James Blake died. The mill was later operated by David Portnell from 1889 to 1895. He sold his interest in the mill to a retired Congregational minister J.G. Bailey. Bailey later became postmaster. He petitioned the Post Office Department to change the name of the office to Vinola, in honor of a well-known vineyard that belonged to his neighbor Carl A. Starek. The letter was written in longhand, and the o and l were spaced too close together. As a result, the clerk misread the name as "Vinda", which is how it was recorded. The area's name was later changed to Silver Springs. Bailey sold 325 acres of land and a cabin to Harvey.
Coin Harvey
Monte Ne was entirely conceived and funded by William "Coin" Hope Harvey, a well-known businessman, politician, lecturer and author during the 1890s. Although Harvey was financially successful at silver mining in Colorado, Monte Ne seems to have been funded mostly by the sales of Harvey's writings which dealt with the subject of free silver. His most popular pamphlet, entitled Coin's Financial School, was published in 1893. Sales were buoyed by Harvey's involvement in the 1896 presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan, and it sold two million copies. Though Bryan lost his bid for president, Harvey had become so important to the campaign that he was made chairman of the Democratic Ways & Means Committee to collect money for the 1900 campaign. However, as a result of an argument before the campaign, he resigned.