Kessler Mountain is in southwest Fayetteville and its peak is the highest point within Fayetteville city limits at 1,856 feet (565 meters) above sea level.
The first known cultivated vineyard in Arkansas was established on the eastern side of Kessler Mountain in the late 1860s by the Kessler family: Philip and Kate Kessler and their daughter, Clara.
The family purchased 13 acres at the peak of the mountain in 1866, built a home and a wine cellar. They also operated Kessler’s Wine Hall on West Center Street in Fayetteville, serving “Kessler’s celebrated wines and peach and apple brandies…drinks ten cents or three for twenty-five cents.”
The family home is no longer standing, but the stone wine cellar and well are still visible on the property.
As a result of the 2008 “Great Recession,” the city acquired a significant portion of the northern end of the mountain and part of the valley below from developers unable to proceed with a large housing project.
Kessler Mountain Regional Park was created by the city. It includes a network of trails on the mountain itself, used constantly by hikers and mountain bikers for recreation. The Fayetteville Traverse, a 37-mile natural-surface mountain-bike trail that loops around southwest Fayetteville, also crosses over the mountain.
Trails on Kessler
- Chinkapin Oak
- Crazy Mary
- Egg Beater
- Fayetteville Traverse
- Goat Trail
- Last Call
- Saddle Up
- Serpentine
- Spellbound
- Terrapin Station
- Trent Trail
- Western Myth