Geology
thumb|Looking north from Mount Magazine's Cameron Bluff, October 2013
As the South American plate collided with the North American plate during the late Paleozoic, a major foreland basin, the Arkoma Basin, developed north of the Ouachita Mountains. Small grains of sediment that had filled the Arkoma Basin were compacted and cemented into sedimentary rock. After millions of years of erosion, synclines like Mount Magazine have become the most positive topographic features; this phenomenon is the result of the rapid weathering of shales once sandstones were breached on the flanks of surrounding anticlines.
Mount Magazine is a broad mesa composed of Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks deposited in various shallow-water environments. Like many mountains in the western Arkansas River Valley, Mount Magazine is capped by the Savanna Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, and sandstone; the upper portion of this sequence is missing throughout most of Arkansas. It also consists of 18 campsites for nature-lovers. An annual butterfly festival is hosted each June in the Paris town square.
Animals
The park is home to many species including the shagreen snail, black bear, white-tailed deer, rufous-crowned sparrows (rare), and 94 of the 134 butterfly species of Arkansas. The rarest butterfly species is the Diana Fritillary.
Activities
Activities include the following: hiking, biking, bird watching, horseback riding, hang gliding, rappelling, rock climbing, sightseeing, and photography.