The landscape and history of Petit Jean State Park and the Arkansas River Valley unfold from these palisades, a line of cliffs whose name traces to the French palissade and the older meaning of a fence of stakes. On clear days, the western horizon includes Mount Magazine, Mount Nebo, and Lake Dardanelle, all sites of Arkansas State Parks, while the distant Magazine Range stretches across the view. The mountains in this range once bore unknown names given by American Indians before recorded history, then later received names from European explorers and more recent settlers. What is now Mount Nebo was once called Magasin, meaning barn or storehouse, because of its barn-like shape. Mrs. Louis White gave Mount Nebo its present-day name in the late 1860s, and the highest summit in the range, as well as the range itself, then took on the name Magazine. Today Mount Magazine, at 2,753 feet above sea level, is the highest elevation in Arkansas, and both mountains are popular state park destinations.