ARKANSAS POST - A TRICENTENNIAL

On June 15, 1986, Arkansas celebrated the sesquicentennial of statehood. Admitted to the Union in 1836 in tandem with Michigan, Arkansas was still sparsely settled. The Ozark and Ouachita Mountains covered the northwestern half of the state. They were not very high but were very rugged and offered a formidable challenge to overland travel and settlement. The southeastern half, consisting for the most part of the Delta area, was more amenable to settlement. It offered fertile, almost level land, with a relatively mild climate. The entire state, except for the Grand and Little Prairie sections in Arkansas, Prairie and Lonoke Counties, was liberally wooded. Hunting, fishing and trapping remained high on the list of human activity, although planting, principally cotton, was becoming widespread.

The eastern boundary was the Mississippi River, a main artery of travel. Within the state, the Arkansas River almost bisected the state from northwest to southeast, separating the Ozarks and the Ouachitas. Other arteries north of the Arkansas were the White and St. Francis Rivers. To the south of the Arkansas, the Saline and Ouachita Rivers rose in the Ouachita Mountains and flowed south into Louisiana before reaching the Mississippi River. The Red River crossed the southwestern corner of the state on the way to the Mississippi.

Despite the fertile land and salubrious climate, even the Delta region had drawbacks. Large areas of swampland and meandering rivers offered ob stacles. All the rivers had the dismaying tendency to flood in late winter and spring, and except for the mighty Mississippi, be virtually dry in the summer. And Arkansas was the edge of the country in 1836. Texas had not yet entered the Union, and the present day state of Oklahoma was then the Indian territory, being the home of a number of displaced tribes, including the Caddo, Osages and Quapaws that were indigenous to Arkansas.

Yet, Little Rock, the capitol was growing. Pine Bluff and Napoleon were becoming important to the east and Fort Smith was the control point for the Indians to the west. By 1836, Arkansas was a bit crude and unsophisticated, but it was a state in the United States.

But the history of Arkansas did not begin in 1836. The area now known as Arkansas had been occupied for thousands of years by various Indians. First contact with the European explorers came with the arrival of the Spanish in 1541. The French came calling in 1673. The first settlement was made by the French in 1686. Thus, 1986 is not only the Sesquicentennial of Statehood, but also the Tricentennial of settlement at Arkansas Post. Let us examine the penetration of the wilderness that became Arkansas.