The original "Castle in the Sky" lodge was built in 1898 on 2,681-foot Rich Mountain, in Polk County, Arkansas.

The park is on Talimena Scenic Drive — northwest of Mena, Arkansas and east of the Oklahoma state line.

[3] The original lodge was built by the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad to house passengers.

Many of the railroad's investors were Dutch, so the lodge was named to honor Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who was to be crowned in September 1898.

The KCPG railroad faced financial problems, and was sold to what later became the Kansas City Southern Railway.