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The Telegraph Road has shaped the history of Northwest Arkansas more than any other land feature.  It has brought settlers, commerce, prosperity and war to the region.  Many parts of the original road still exist and are in use today.

Until the mid-1840s, the road was used primarily by the Army to move supplies and correspondence between Springfield, Missouri and the garrison at Fort Smith, Arkansas.  During this period, it was referred to as the Military Road.  In 1838, thousands of Cherokee Indians moved along the Military Road near the end of their forced exodus from their ancestral homes in Georgia and the Carolinas.  Due to the extreme hardships endured along the way, the route, including the Military Road, became known by the Cherokees as the Trail of Tears.   

As the frontier moved west and the threat of Indian attack diminished, the Army reduced its presence in the region.  The road, now known as the Springfield to Fayetteville Road, became the region's primary route for commerce with Missouri.  Small towns began to develop along the road, including Bentonville, the region's second largest community and the county seat for Benton County.  From 1840 to 1860, Benton County's population increased over 300% as the road brought settlers to the region, many of them farmers and hunters from Tennessee.

The Butterfield Overland Stage began running along the road in 1858.  Two years later, in 1860, the region's first telegraph line was strung along the road, giving the road its last, and most enduring name - the Telegraph or Wire Road.  The line ran from Springfield, Missouri to Fort Smith, but was cut less than a year later when Arkansas seceded from the Union.