Why are those little flags beside the road?

Red, yellow, orange. The colors tell you about buried facilities. They tell you much less about the project that might follow.

Read the colors. Then ask what comes next.

Red, yellow, and orange utility marking flags above colored spray paint beside a road — A familiar roadside clue. Owner-supplied photograph; location not established.

Before the neighborhood

What happens before the first house shows up?

A cleared field is only one clue. In Rogers, the story runs through plats, drainage plans and utility work before a house takes shape.

Follow the ground and the paperwork ↗

In the file

A proposal, an approval and work on the ground are three different things.

Recently cleared ground with straw cover and a muddy access area under an overcast sky

After the rain

The ground is cleared. Where does the rain go?

The muddy spot catches your eye. The route beyond it tells you more.

Follow the water ↗

Elsewhere around Arkansas

Why can two Arkansas rivers look so different?

The Buffalo’s turquoise water explains one kind of difference. Measurements from three Beaver Lake tributaries reveal another that a photograph cannot show.

Look past the color ↗

Buffalo River flowing past a gravel bar and Roark Bluff at Steel Creek, Arkansas

Steel Creek, Buffalo National River · NPS

Build & Develop Our first desk follows the work changing Arkansas ground.

Open the desk ↗