Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Arkansas Was Home European Settlement

On the eastern edge of Desha County in southeastern Arkansas lies one of the state's most inaccessible and unsung geographical features the confluence of America's longest river, the Mississippi, and its fourth longest, the Arkansas.

Because of that feature, Arkansas became only the third state west of the Mississippi and 18th overall to have a permanent European settlement established within what would become its boundaries.

In a time when rivers were America's main transportation routes, the Frenchman Henri de Tonty founded his Poste de Arkansea in 1686 near where the two rivers joined. The Quapaw Indian village of Osotoy was located nearby.

The Post's historical legacy did not stop with its founding. It would become the site of Arkansas's only armed encounter of the Revolutionary War, the first capital of the Arkansas Territory, the birthplace of the Arkansas Gazette and a Civil War battlefield.

Today, the settlement and the people who lived its history are remembered at the Arkansas Post National Memorial and the Arkansas Post Museum State Park. The state museum is located six miles south of Gillett at the junction of U.S. 165 and Ark. 169, while the memorial lies two miles east at the end of Ark. 169.

The exact location of de Tonty's original settlement has never been determined. By 1819, Arkansas Post had been moved further upstream on the Arkansas perhaps as many as 10 times to escape the frequent flooding on the river's low reaches. The 389-acre national memorial preserves that site.

In the inaugural issue of the Gazette, published at the Post on November 20, 1819, an anonymous correspondent predicted that the settlement would 'always be a place of mercantile importance, it being the first high ground above the mouth of the river.'

The Post now draws about 55,000 visitors a year, but its only residents are a few employees of the national memorial and their families.

The memorial's visitors center, open free of charge from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., offers a 14- minute film on the Post's history as well as exhibits on the native Americans who once occupied the area, on the fur trade conducted by the French, Spanish and Americans, on the Post's flora and fauna and on the steamboats that plied the Arkansas.

The Gazette's 1819 writer had plenty of reason for optimism about his town's future. It had even survived changes of national ownership during its 133 years, and on July 4 of that year, the Post had become the territorial capital of Arkansas.

Established by the French, the Post had been in Spanish hands from 1762 to 1800 and was then returned to France. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Post for the first time became American soil.

During the Revolutionary War, Arkansas Post was controlled by the Spanish, who were allies of the American rebels. On April 17, 1783, a band of 82 British partisans attacked the Spanish fort at the Post, but it was successfully defended by about 40 Spanish soldiers and a group of their Quapaw allies.

In the early 1800s, the Post emerged as an important American trading center. From 1805 to 1810, it was the site of one of only three U.S. trading posts west of Mississippi.

The Post's decline began in 1821 when the territorial capital was moved upstream to Little Rock, a new settlement near the territory's center. The Gazette and a substantial number of residents followed.

The town's doom, however, wasn't sealed until the Civil War. Union control of the Mississippi quickly brought an end to steamboat traffic on the Arkansas, which led to an economic collapse and the departure of many of the town's remaining residents.

In late 1862, Confederate forces constructed an earthen fort at the Post on a bluff overlooking the Arkansas to keep the Union from using the river as a route to attack Little Rock. Under the command of Gen. Thomas J. Churchill, Fort Hindman was defended by about 5,000 troops and 11 cannon.

Union Gen. John McClernand, who had been involved in the siege at Vicksburg and felt his troops needed a victory to boost morale, decided to attack the fort. On January 9, 1863, 60 steamers unloaded 32,000 Union troops south of the fort as Union gunboats moved into position.

The following day, the Union forces drove the Confederates back to their line of defense adjacent to the fort. On Sunday, January 11, the Union gunboats knocked out the fort's armaments and wreaked heavy damage on the town. The Confederates surrendered after a 30- hour battle.

Arkansas Post never recovered. Over the years, the Arkansas River eroded away the sites of the Spanish and Civil War forts and some of the 1819 town site. Today, those areas lie under the waters of Post Bend, a channel abandoned by the river when it changed course in 1903.

What remains of the town site today is an open field dotted with large oaks and a wooded area along the Arkansas.

A walking tour features informational panels describing the Revolutionary and Civil War battles and the structures once located at the Post. They denote buildings such as the Arkansas Post branch of the Bank of the State of Arkansas, a cotton gin and press, a tavern where the first meetings of the territorial government were held, the log cabin where William E. Woodruff first published the Gazette and the U.S. trading factory.

The memorial has no campsites, but a pleasantly shaded picnic area borders the wide and scenic Post bayou. Civil War rifle pits are located nearby.

With a wide variety of habitats, the memorial is an excellent place for birdwatching. In the spring of 1822, John James Audubon visited the Post and collected, named and painted Traill's flycatcher, the only bird species to first be discovered in Arkansas.

The Arkansas Post Museum State Park complements well the resources of the national memorial. The main house includes such displays as a small crucifix dating from the 1700s, documents and letters from the Post dating from as early as 1805, a January 14, 1863, letter from a Union soldier to his sister describing the Post battle, and Quapaw pottery from the 1500s through the 1700s.

On the museum grounds are located a pioneer kitchen, a 1933 children's playhouse with built-to-scale furniture, the log Refeld-Hinman House (c. 1877) furnished with turn-of-the century items and the Peterson Building, which features pioneer farm tools and household items, military displays and other relics.

Admission to the museum is $2.25 for adults and $1.25 for those six to 12. The museum is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except for Sunday, when it is open from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed only on Thanksgiving Day, December 24 and 25 and January 1.

For more information on the national memorial and its interpretive programming, phone 870-548-2207 or write 1741 Old Post Road, Gillett AR 72055.

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