III. THE SITE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

C. The Establishment of Arkansas Post State Park
1. Chenault Makes a Proposal
Zeroing on the problem of preservation of the area, Chenault informed his readers that for more than 100 years the United States government had held title to a l47-acre reservation at the village site. Since the 1819 survey much of the reservation had eroded into the river, but in the years following 1900 the Arkansas had shifted its course to the south, and its former channel was now grown up in cottonwoods and briars and was subject to flooding during periods of high water. A triangular tract of high ground remained, and as this was the site of the bank and capitol, Chenault suggested that it be deeded to the state as a park.[11]

2. The Legislature Acts
Representative Ballard Deane of Arkansas County was one of those who read Chenault's article in the Gazette, and he determined to take action. In 1929 Deane introduced a bill into the Arkansas General Assembly to create an Arkansas Post State Park Commission. The 12-member Commission would be authorized to "accept lands, money or other things of value" to be held in the name of the Arkansas Post State Park Commission. The Commission would be authorized to spend such money as "may come into its hands for the building, rebuilding, maintenance, repair, labor, tools and materials toward the end that this Park may reflect credit on the State of Arkansas." Members of the Commission were to receive no salary or any financial return for services rendered.

The purpose of the park was declared to be the preservation and beautification of this "historic spot for future generations, thereby promoting health and pleasure, providing a recreation place, resort and play ground for the people" of Arkansas and to attract visitors and tourists to the State.

The legislation was enacted by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Harvey Parnell on February 27, 1929.[12]

3. The First Meeting of the Commission
a. The Post of Arkansas Reservation
Members of the Commission having been appointed, it held its first meeting on February 11, 1930, in the office of the Arkansas History Commission. Eight members were in attendance, in addition to Representative Deane and F. M. Quertermous, Arkansas County Surveyor. When the session was called to order, J. W. Burnett of DeWitt was elected president and Dallas T. Herndon of Little Rock secretary.[13]

The first item taken up was the question of perfecting title to the site. United States Representative D. D. Glover had been contacted to see if he could determine ownership of the 147 acres at the Post, which it was reported had been confirmed by the United States as the site for Post of Arkansas. If title to this acreage was still vested in the United States, the Commission would petition the government for a donation of the subject acreage as a site for a public park. Members were told that F. J. Quandt claimed part of the subject acreage, and was willing to deed his claim of 40 acres to the
Commission, as soon as it was organized and was ready to receive such a gift.

A committee was named by Chairman Burnett to pursue the matter.[14]

Representative Glover on contacting the Department of the Interior learned that on June 13, 1812, Congress had enacted legislation, providing that

Section 2 of the Act of June 13, 1812, reserved for the support of schools "all town or village lots, out-lots, or common-field lots, included in such surveys, which are not rightfully owned or claimed by any private individuals, or held as commons,"
provided the land so reserved did not exceed one-twentieth part of the whole lands included in the general survey.[16]

Congress on May 26, 1824, enacted additional legislation bearing on the subject. It was provided that individual owners or claimants "whose claims were confirmed by the Act of June 13, 1812, were to furnish within 18 months proof of their claims before the recorder of land titles so as to enable the Surveyor-General to distinguish the private from the vacant lots." Moreover, it was enacted that after the expiration of the allotted 18 months, the Surveyor-General "should survey, designate or set apart to the towns or villages, for the support of schools," the vacant lots, out-lots, and common-field lots not to exceed more than "one-twentieth part of the whole lands included in the general survey."[17]

An examination of the pertinent records by Interior Department personnel indicated that neither Congress, officials of the General Land Office, nor the landowners had taken any action toward the "settlement of the claims to the land in question." But by the Act of January 27, 1831, "the United States relinquished all title to all the lands within the exterior limits of all the ten other towns and villages," enumerated with Arkansas Post in the Act of June 13, 1812.[18]

Inasmuch as no action had been taken toward segregation of the lots which had been confirmed by the Act of June 13, 1812, from the vacant lots and lots reserved for the support of schools, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur held that title to the Reservation or any "particular part thereof cannot be determined until evidence is furnished to show what lands had been inhabitated, cultivated or possessed prior to December 20, 1803."[19]

There were no plats showing property lines inside the Reservation, so no one was prepared to challenge the claim Fred Quandt had established in 1927 to the 140-acre Post of Arkansas Reservation. Quandt accordingly on June 17, 1930, donated to the Arkansas Post Park Commission, for one dollar, 20 acres at the northwest corner of the Reservation.[20]

To celebrate transfer of the 20 acres, a program featuring an "old-fashioned picnic" was held under the great oaks at the park entrance on June 17. More than 500 were in attendance and applauded as Mr. and Mrs. Fred Quandt presented the deed to the 20-acre tract to President Burnett.[21] After listening to a number of speeches, patriotic songs, and eating, members of the Commission in attendance walked across "the clovered field of the old settlement past memorials placed by the Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce and Daughters of 1812." The former had been positioned in memory of the first settlers and to commemorate the Civil War battle and the latter to honor Arkansas' 93d anniversary of statehood.

As the visitors "peered through a great variety of trees, shrubs and vines which form a background to [these] memorials," they saw the "old cistern." They then watched as Surveyor Quertermous marked the lines of the Quandt donation, and presented members of the Commission with the map of Arkansas Post in 1829, which he had compiled.[22]