III. THE SITE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

E. Plans for 1932
Although the $5,000 appropriated by the Arkansas General Assembly for development of the area had been spent, the Commission proposed a number of improvements for 1932. Among these were: (a) acquisition of eight additional acres on the southwest side of the Park; (b) a United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial Circle; (c) a Memorial Garden to honor Arkansas authors and composers; (d) get the State Highway Department to grade and gravel the road from Highway #1 to the Park entrance; (e) secure state funds for the reconstruction of the Tonty fort; (f) secure through the French ambassador a monument to Tonty; (g) to memorialize early residents of the area with markers to be erected around the "historical circle"; (h) regrade and gravel the park roads; (i) to secure funds from the owners of the Arkansas Gazette to reconstruct the first home of the Gazette and to equip it with a period press; and (k) secure a Federal appropriation to commemorate the Revolutionary and Civil War battles at Arkansas Post.[41]

With the nation in the depths of a world-wide depression, the Commission was unable to get additional funds from the State for development of Arkansas Post State Park. Efforts by the Arkansas County Women's Clubs to raise funds fell far short of their goals. United States Representative Glover also failed the Commission. On January 6, 1932, at the request of the Commission, he introduced H.R. 7113, authorizing the "erection of a marker suitably marking" the sites of the battles of Arkansas Post. Glover's bill directed the Secretary of War to "cause to be erected" in the state park at the Post "a suitable marker... at a cost not to exceed $5,000."

H.R. 7113 was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, where it was pigeon-holed.[42]

F. The State Park Board Takes Charge
Donated money was not sufficient to fund any new development at the Park. Efforts to get the owners of the Arkansas Gazette to reconstruct Woodruff's print shop and France to erect a memorial to Tonty likewise failed. By 1934 members of the Commission were ready to give up. On July 19 the group met in Little Rock to discuss the bleak financial situation. President Burnett announced that the purpose of the meeting was to decide whether to petition "the State Park Board to take over control of and to maintain" the Park. The Commission, he reminded the members, was without funds, and the only hope was the State Park Commission.

If the State Park Commission had administrative responsibility for the area, it might be possible to secure Federal money for improvements. After some discussion, it was agreed to petition the Board to assume control under terms and provisions of Section 8 of Act 57 of the acts of the Arkansas General Assembly for 1929.[43]

At its regular meeting, the Arkansas State Park Board on January 23, 1935, took up the petition and voted to assume responsibility for Arkansas Post State park.[44]

In 1935 a detachment from the Civilian Conservation Corps was employed in the area by the State Park Board and effected a number of improvements. Among these were improvements in the existing picnic grounds, and the addition of camp sites, foot trails, a golf course, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds. The cost of these improvements was placed at $5,000.[45]

G. Halliburton's 1939 Visit to the Park
1. The Visitor Center
In January 1939 W. H. Halliburton visited Arkansas Post State Park. The last eight miles of the road leading southward from DeWitt to the Park were gravel. As he motored through the village, he saw that the houses and outbuildings were aged and needed a coat of paint. At the entrance to the Park, he drove past two brick pillars and parked in front of the caretaker's lodge, built of squared cypress logs. Its roof was hand-riven cypress shingles. Within the building was a museum, housing artifacts "common to pioneer housekeeping, hunting, and farming, along with battlefield relics. One of the more interesting objects was the rusted iron door from the vault of the Arkansas State Bank.”[46]

2. The Lady of the Lake
The pond, he found, was irregularly-shaped, with "here and there a peninsula jutting toward the middle, many with enjoyable trees." On the opposite side of the lake from the diving tower, was a statue of a woman in classic Greek garb, positioned on a stone base. One hand was uplifted, as in benediction. She was referred to by local residents as the "Lady of the Lake." The figure once known as the statue of justice, had originally been positioned on the cupola of the Arkansas County Courthouse at DeWitt, which was razed in 1931.[47]

H. Archeology at Arkansas Post in 1966 and 1968
In 1960 Arkansas Post was established by Congress as a National Memorial. With the objective of locating building sites from the main period of American occupation, 1804-63, Rex L. Wilson, National Park Service archeologist, conducted a series of limited archeological tests at Arkansas Post National Memorial in 1966. Four structures of this period were located. Wilson tentatively identified these as: (l) Frederic Notrebe's Cotton Gin, (2) Frederic Notrebe's Residence and Store, (3) Frederic Notrebe's Warehouse, and (4) the Arkansas Post branch of the Bank of the State of Arkansas. However, later research indicates that only the latter was correctly identified, although the other three were, as Wilson suggested, the property of Notrebe.

In 1968, John W. Walker, also a National Park Service archeologist, completed excavation of the Bank, a 30'8" by 60'8" structure, which was built of brick with cut stone trim and roofed with metal shingles. His excavation recovered artifactual evidence, which, in combination with historical information, indicates that the building was used as a hospital by the Confederate Army in 1862-63 and that it was destroyed by Union artillery during the battle which occurred at the Post of Arkansas on January 11, 1863.[48]

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