Within a year, the Confederate Veteran magazine reported the new park would be "...a consummation, an attraction, a hallowed spot like unto none in our Western Southland."

The annual events at the park featured political speeches, dinners on the grounds, foot races and carnival games as well as providing a place for the aging veterans to reunite and reminisce. Following World War I, the reunions included the veterans of that conflict, too. Four thousand people attended the 1918 reunion featuring, among other things, an airplane flight. By 1922, there was a baseball game, vaudeville and wild west show, and a parade. Even during the Great Depression, the reunions continued with the last surviving Confederate veterans in the area attending the 1938 event. Despite the lack of veterans, the 1940 reunion included politicians, the acrobatic team of "Riggs and Riggs," and an Old Fiddler's Contest.

The December 7 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the already memorable date to the people of Prairie Grove ended the reunions for the duration of the war. It also sent the park into a period of stagnation with few efforts made to maintain the grounds.

Local citizens, however, renewed their efforts to improve the park during the 1950s. The Prairie Grove Lions Club made it a priority to care for the hallowed battle site. Other individuals asked the State of Arkansas to provide funds for the park. The effort resulted in the passage of Senate Bill 278 in 1957, creating a Prairie Grove Battlefield Park Commission and appropriating $50,000 for development. This money and future funding enabled the Commission to purchase additional acreage and move several historic structures to the park, including the Morrow and Latta houses.

During the centennial anniversary of the battle in 1962, many citizens, including the commissioners, urged the state to make Prairie Grove Battlefield Park a state park, but several years passed before that dream became reality. Meanwhile, the volunteer spirit continued unabated at the park. A donation of $100,000 was bequeathed from the estate of Biscoe Hindman, son of Major General Thomas C. Hindman who commanded the Confederate Army at Prairie Grove. Architect Kenneth Cockram designed Hindman Hall and used the gift for the construction budget. The Commission dedicated the impressive structure in 1965.

Finally made a state park in 1971, Prairie Grove Battlefield Historic State Park continued to improve with the 1980 addition of the Borden House property, where some of the heaviest fighting occurred. This acquisition brought the park's total acreage to 130, which remained until a new effort to expand the park began in 1992. The American Battlefield Protection Program worked with Arkansas State Parks in preparing a Battlefield Protection Plan for Prairie Grove that year. The result was that a mixture of State, Federal and private funds were used to purchase more of the Civil War site. Today, the park includes about 750 acres of the battlefield.