Arkansas History Timeline

1541

Hernando de Soto explores Arkansas

1686

Henri de Tonti establishes Arkansas Post

April 30, 1803

Louisiana Purchase Treaty signed

December 16, 1811

New Madrid earthquake

July 4, 1819

Arkansas Territory organized

June 15, 1836

Arkansas becomes 25th state

May 6, 1861

Arkansas secedes from United States of America

June 22, 1868

Arkansas is readmitted to United States of America

Spring 1874

Brooks–Baxter War

January 10, 1921

Oil discovered around Smackover

March 4, 1921

Hot Springs National Park established

Spring 1927

The Mississippi floods and ravages the Delta

September 4, 1957

Arkansas National Guard deployed to protect Little Rock Nine

January 20, 1993

Bill Clinton inaugurated as President of the United States

The history of Arkansas began millennia ago when humans first crossed into North America. Many tribes used Arkansas as their hunting lands but the main tribe was the Quapaw who settled in Arkansas River delta upon moving south from Illinois. Early French explorers gave the territory its name, a corruption of Akansea, which is a phonetic spelling of the Illinois word for the Quapaw.^[1] What began as a rough wilderness inhabited by trappers and hunters became incorporated into the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and became Arkansas Territory in 1819. Upon gaining statehood in 1836, Arkansas began to prosper under a plantation economy that was heavily reliant on slave labor.

Colonial Arkansas

The expeditions of Hernando de Soto, Marquette and Joliet

The first European to reach Arkansas was the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1541. Soto wandered among settlements, inquiring about gold and other valuable natural resources. He encountered the Casqui in northeast Arkansas, who sent him north around Devil's Elbow to the Pacaha, the enemy of the Casqui. Upon arrival in the Pacaha village, the Casqui who had followed behind de Soto attacked and raided the village.^[8] Soto ultimately engaged the two tribes' chiefs in a peace treaty before continuing on to travel much of Arkansas. The explorer died in May 1542 and was thrown into the Mississippi River near McArthur, Arkansas to prevent local tribes from knowing he was mortal.^[8] In 1673, French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reached the Arkansas River as part of an expedition to find the mouth of the Mississippi River. After a calumet with friendly Quapaw, the group suspected the Spanish to be nearby and returned north.

Map of Arkansas that includes de Soto route, 1795

Robert La Salle entered Arkansas in 1681 as part of his quest to find the mouth of the Mississippi River, and thus claim the entire river for New France.^[9] La Salle and his partner, Henri de Tonti, succeeded in this venture, claiming the river in April 1682. La Salle would return to France while dispatching de Tonti to wait for him and hold Fort St. Louis. On the king's orders, La Salle returned to colonize the Gulf of Mexico for the French, but ran aground in Matagorda Bay.^[10] La Salle led three expeditions on foot searching for the Mississippi River, but his third party mutinied near Navasota, Texas in 1687. de Tonti learned of La Salle's Texas expeditions and traveled south in an effort to locate him along the Mississippi River. Along this journey south, de Tonti founded Arkansas Post as a waypoint for his searches in 1686.^[11] La Salle's party, now led by his brother, stumbled upon the Post and were greeted kindly by Quapaw with fond memories of La Salle. The troupe thought it best to lie and say La Salle remained at his new coastal colony.^[12]

The French colonization of the Mississippi Valley would end with the later destruction of Fort St. Louis were it not for de Tonti establishing the small trading stop, Arkansas Post.^[13] The party originally lead by La Salle would depart the Post and continue north to Montreal, where interest was spurred in explorers who had the knowledge that the French had a holding in the region.^[14]

Arkansas Post

The first settlement in Arkansas was Arkansas Post, established in 1686 by Henri de Tonti.^[15] The post disbanded for unknown reasons in 1699 but was reestablished in 1721 in the same location. Located slightly upriver from the confluence of the Arkansas River and Mississippi River, the remote post was a center of trade and home base for fur trappers in the region to trade their wares.^[15] The French settlers mingled and in some cases even intermarried with Quapaw natives, sharing a dislike of English and Chickasaw, who were allies at the time. A moratorium on furs imposed by Canada severely affected the post's economy, and many settlers began to move out of the Mississippi River Valley. Scottish banker John Law saw the struggling post and attempted to entice settlers to emigrate from Germany to start an agriculture settlement at Arkansas Post, but his efforts failed when Law-created Mississippi Bubble burst in 1720.^[15] The French maintained the post throughout this time mostly due to its strategic significance along the Mississippi River. The post was moved back further from the Mississippi River in 1749 after the English with their Chickasaw allies attacked, it was moved downriver in 1756 to be closer to a Quapaw defensive line that had been established, and to serve, as an entrepôt, or trading post, during the Seven Years' War and prevent attacks from the Spanish along the Mississippi.^[16] After the war ended, the post was again moved upriver out of the floodplain in 1779.^[17]

The secret Treaty of Fontainebleau gave Spain the Louisiana Territory in exchange for Florida (although credit is often given to the public Treaty of Paris), including present-day Arkansas. The Spanish show little interest in Arkansas Post except for the land grants meant to inspire settlement around the post which would later cause problems with land titles given by the American government.^[18] The post's position 4 miles (6.4 km) up the Arkansas River made it a hub for trappers to start their journeys, although it also served as a diplomatic center for relations between the Spanish and Quapaw.^[19] Many who stopped at Arkansas Post were simply passing through on their way up or down river and needed supplies or rest.^[20] Inhabitants of the post included approximately 10 elite merchants, some domestic slaves, and the wives and children of trappers who were out in the wilderness.^[21] Only the elites actually lived inside the defensive walls of the post, with the remaining people surrounding the fortification. In April 1783, Arkansas saw its only battle of the American Revolutionary War, a brief siege of the post by British Captain James Colbert, with the assistance of Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians.^[22]

Louisiana Purchase and territorial status

Although the United States of America had gained separation from the British as a result of the Revolutionary War, Arkansas remained in Spanish hands after the conflict. Americans began moving west to Kentucky and Tennessee, and the United States wanted to guarantee these people that the Spanish possession of the Mississippi River would not disrupt commerce. Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest of Spain shortly after the American Revolution forced the Spanish to cede Louisiana, including Arkansas, to the French via the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. England declared war on France in 1803, and Napoleon sold his land in the new world to the United States, today known as the Louisiana Purchase. The size of the country doubled with the purchase, and an influx of new White settlers led to a changed dynamic between Native Americans and Arkansans.^[23] Prior to the Louisiana Purchase, the relationship between the two groups was a "middle ground" of give and take. These relationships would deteriorate all across the frontier, including in Arkansas.^[24]

Thomas Jefferson initiated the Lewis and Clark Expedition to find the nation's new northern boundary, and the Dunbar Hunter Expedition, led by William Dunbar, was sent to establish the new southern boundary. The group was intended to explore the Red River, but due to Spanish hostility settled on a tour up the Ouachita River to explore the hot springs in central Arkansas.^[25] Leaving in October 1804 and parting company at Fort Miro on January 16, 1805,^[26] their reports included detailed accounts of give and take between Native Americans and trappers, detailed flora and fauna descriptions, and a chemical analysis of the "healing waters" of the hot springs.^[27] Useful information for settlers to navigate the area and descriptions of the people inhabiting south Arkansas was also included.^[28] The settler-Native American relationship deteriorated further following the 1812 New Madrid earthquake, viewed by some as punishment for accepting and assimilating into White culture. Many Cherokee left their farms and moved shortly after a speech admonishing the tribe for departing from tradition following a speech in June 1812 by a tribal chief.^[29]

Formation of Arkansaw Territory

A small segment of the Territory of Missouri applied for statehood on March 2, 1819. The application included a provision that would bring Missouri into the Union as a slave state, which would upset the delicate balance of slave and free states. This application also defined all land in the Missouri Territory south of the parallel 36°30' north, except the Missouri Bootheel between the Mississippi River and the Saint Francis River north of the 36th parallel north, as the new Territory of Arkansaw. When the Missouri Enabling Act was taken up in the United States House of Representatives, James Tallmadge denounced slavery and succeeded in passing the Tallmadge Amendment in the House, an act that would have extinguished slavery in Missouri in a generation. The act was the first attempt to curb the rapid expansion of slavery along the country's expanding western frontier and caught many southern Democrats by surprise.^[30] The following day, John Taylor proposed identical restrictions on slavery before authorizing the Arkansaw Enabling Act.^[31] The banning of new slaves amendment was soundly defeated, but the gradual emancipation measure was tied until Speaker of the House Henry Clay cast the deciding no vote killing the Amendment and allowing Arkansaw to organize as a slave territory.^[32] The Missouri Compromise was later struck allowing Maine to enter as a free state, thus allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state to keeping the balance of free/slave states at 12 each.^[33]

The uncertainty surrounding Missouri's status as a slave state caused a rapid outmigration of slaveholders into Arkansas. Slavery also became a divisive issue within Arkansas. The wealthy planters of southeast Arkansas strongly supported slavery since manual labor was the only method of harvesting cotton at the time. The northwest parts of the state did not have cotton plantations, and as little as 2% of the black population in northwest Arkansas was enslaved during the territorial era. However, northwest Arkansas backed slavery in support of the southeastern Arkansas planters.^[34]

Native American removal from Arkansas

In an effort to prevent white settlers from encroaching on their home territory, the Quapaw signed an 1818 treaty relinquishing all their hunting lands in exchange for keeping 32,000,000 acres (13,000,000 ha) of land along the Arkansas River in south Arkansas in their possession.^[35] This treaty was later reneged upon the following year, with whites taking all but 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) back for settlement. At this time, Cherokee from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina were being forced into Arkansas onto Caddo hunting lands west of Little Rock.^[36] The Caddo did not welcome the invasion of the Cherokee, who had though they were moving to uninhabited land. The Caddo viewed the Cherokee as "domesticated" by the white man for signing treaties with the United States government and the tribes went to war. Cephas Washburn established Dwight Mission near Russellville as a school for Cherokee youth at the tribe's request in 1821.^[37] This school was later moved to Sallisaw, Oklahoma. The Osage signed a treaty to leave Arkansas in 1825 and moved to Kansas briefly before buying their own reservation in Osage County, Oklahoma. The United States established Fort Smith, Arkansas and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma to keep the peace with the disgruntled Native Americans.

Territorial government

The new Arkansaw Territory held its territorial government at the territorial capital, Arkansas Post, and included all of present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma except the Oklahoma panhandle. These lands became Indian Territory by 1828, leaving the modern day outline of Arkansas. Upon creation of the territory, President James Monroe appointed James Miller of New Hampshire, the hero of Lundy's Lane, as territorial governor, and young Robert Crittenden as secretary of the territory. Miller had little interest in governing the territory, and spent most of his time without its boundaries. This left an opportunist Crittenden in charge of Arkansas, and he quickly assembled three judges together to form Arkansas's first legislature. Crittenden also held an election that selected James Woodson Bates as Arkansas's territorial delegate to Congress in addition to forming and filling two branches of territorial legislature. This election became contested when Miller returned and decided Arkansas would follow an 1812 law that all territorial legislative positions were to be filled by appointment, nullifying Crittenden's election. Congress later affirmed the election, but the situation formed a divide between Miller's followers and the Crittenden faction.

Miller and Crittenden were again divided over the relocation of the territorial capitol from the unsuitable backwater at Arkansas Post. The legislature discussed the issue of relocating the capitol in 1820, but could not decided between Little Rock and Cadron before the session ended. After the session ended, William Russell, owner of hundreds of lots around Little Rock, began selling them to legislators and influential men like Crittenden, Robert Oden, William A. Trimble, and Andrew Scott. Upon returning, the legislature passed a bill to move the capitol to Little Rock by three votes, increasing the value of many legislators' Little Rock lots significantly. In protest, Miller moved to a new house at Crystal Hill near Cadron before being reassigned to Salem, Massachusetts. During the move to Little Rock, Crittenden formed the Rose Law Firm with Chester Ashley, forming a powerful political alliance between The Family and Crittenden's supporters. Arkansas's second territorial governor was George Izard, a wealthy planter who moved to the territory from South Carolina. Izard succeeded in changing divorce law and briefly stopping the Quapaw removal in Arkansas. He also organized a militia and managed to quiet Crittenden, who remained as secretary of the territory. Izard died in 1828 and was replaced by John Pope, who was appointed by Andrew Jackson.

Final Quapaw removal

During the Industrial Revolution, cotton prices boomed and white settlers clamored for the fertile lands around the Arkansas River inhabited by the Quapaw. Eventually the government gave in and forced the Quapaw to a reservation in Louisiana with the Caddo. Antoine Baroque led the Quapaw south in the winter of 1825-26. They found the Caddo inhospitable because the Quapaw were viewed as invaders and when the Quapaw's crop washed away twice due to flooding of the Red River, conditions got even worse.^[38] Combined with the overcrowding and lack of annuities promised to both tribes, the Quapaw were unhappy and followed chief Saracen back to their homeland along the Arkansas River. By 1830, the entire tribe had returned to Arkansas, and despite Governor Pope and Indian agent Richard Hannon, the Quapaw were removed to a separate reservation in northeast Oklahoma in 1833.^[39] Secretary Robert Crittenden was instrumental in acquiring the final removal.^[40]

Women in frontier Arkansas

During the frontier period in Arkansas, women were viewed as uncritical and were generally kept indoors. Southern churches often linked the definitions of slavery and marriage in the Bible, thus Southerners viewed an attack on slavery as an attack on families. Historiographers have indicated that men and women understood one another's roles, even though this did not fit with classical Southern republicanism of the day. Churches managed to link slavery and marriage so inextricably that poor yeoman farmers supported slavery as they viewed northern abolitionists were attacking families in addition to the institution of slavery. Pastors were heavily influenced toward this message by planters with a vested interest in the survival of slavery.

Similar to slaves, women were often brought along to the frontier with men looking to make a living in the Arkansas delta. These women were transported from their social circles in town to an isolated frontier homestead and a hardscrabble existence. Although the Victorian ideals of men and women maintaining different spheres of influence still held strong in communities, the system broke down on the frontier when survival took priority over the social contract.^[48] Women were often tasked with maintaining the property's day-to-day operations while their husbands were away conducting business. This included dealing with slave overseers or the farm's labor itself. This break from Victorian principles often went unacknowledged by frontier men and women, however.

Many women founded the first marks of civilization in their areas, including schools and churches. Women often met with other women at church and had many superficial friendships to repel loneliness. Health care on the frontier was the responsibility for women, as very few doctors were available. If an entire household fell ill, a neighboring womean was responsible for nursing them back to health. Childbirth also weighed on women as a risky proposition that often resulted in the death of the mother. As a result, the process was feared, dreaded, and often went unmentioned in diaries from the period. The pressures of childbirth, being the primary health care provider and chief farm operator upon their husband's departure gave many frontier women anxiety.

Different aspects of frontier Arkansas life are preserved today in three state parks. Historic Washington State Park in southwest Arkansas is a restored town that was formerly a bustling stop on the Southwest Trail. Davidsonville Historic State Park preserves one of early Arkansas's most important communities, including Arkansas's first post office and courthouse. Powhatan Historic State Park on the Black River allows visitors to relive a former riverport town during its heyday.

Statehood and Antebellum Arkansas

The question of statehood was first raised by National Republican Benjamin Desha in 1831 in the Little Rock Arkansas Advocate. This position was contrary to the Democrats' (and The Family) who feared that the taxation required to maintain state government would be too high on the sparse population. Ambrose Sevier shared this concern about high taxes, however his inability to vote with Andrew Jackson against the Whigs to defeat the National Bank and various economic policies eventually made him more amenable to statehood. When it was announced that Michigan would be applying for statehood as a free state, Sevier knew the abolitionists would have an advantage in the U.S. Senate unless Arkansas also entered as a slave state. Both states applied for statehood, and both were initially denied by congressional Whigs because they were Democratic strongholds.^[49] Arkansas and Michigan both began to draw up state constitutions despite the ruling.^[50]

The issue of representation again brought up the topic of slavery when southeast Arkansas proposed a three-fifths rule in order to count the scores of slaves held in the region.^[51] Northwest Arkansas wanted to proportion the congressional districts based on only free white men, which would give them a political advantage.^[52] Eventually a geographic compromise was struck, with eight representatives from the northwest, eight representatives from the southeast, and one from a central district.^[53] After this compromise was approved, the Arkansas Constitution was sent to Washington for approval. After lengthy debate in the House over the slavery issue, the Arkansas Constitution passed after a 25 hour session.^[54] President Andrew Jackson approved the bill creating the State of Arkansas on June 15, 1836.^[54]

Banking crisis

Arkansas's economy was in poor shape in the period leading up to statehood and was not in a position to support state government functions. Tax rates were very low in all Southern states controlled by planters, and Arkansas was no exception. Most planters did not carry a lot of cash and were usually indebted to cotton factories most months of the year. The little extra cash planters had was usually invested in slaves or land, leaving most plantations in the margins for long periods of time. The northwest parts of Arkansas that did not rely on cotton production relied on a cash scarce economy that consisted of bartering for necessities. Although farmers did produce enough to sell, they were locked in to the local market and were unable to transport their goods to other markets. The federal government gave land to the state, which was in turn sold and the money was used to start a developing treasury for Arkansas. These funds were quickly wasted, and since frontier Arkansas did not offer many services to its citizens, revenues from taxes and fees were not capable of supporting the state government.

Arkansas considered selling bonds to raise funds, but the frontier state remained an unknown and was not seen as a safe investment. The state also lacked agencies capable of issuing bonds, until Governor James Sevier Conway signed acts which chartered too banks during Arkansas's first legislative session, a State Bank and a Real Estate Bank. The Real Estate Bank was to be privately owned by shareholders, but two few shareholders bought in, causing the state to fund both banks. The system had contemporaries in many other states. A showdown on the state legislature floor ended with knives being drawn. President of the Real Estate Bank/Speaker of the Arkansas House John Wilson killed state legislator Joseph Anthony after Anthony offered a bill that criticized Wilson's management of the Real Estate Bank. Wilson was acquitted of murder but expelled from the legislature.^[55] Wilson was reelected in 1840, and had to be restrained in another knife fight.

The year after being founded, the Panic of 1837 hit the nation, a recession that took many years to recover from. Both banks would fail within a decade and the bonds they had issued became entangled in legally questionable deals. They would come to be known as the "Holford Bonds" because they eventually fell into the hands of a London Banker named James Holford. The issue of whether or not the bonds were a legitimate state debt and whether or not they would be repaid would be a political issue in the state throughout the 1800s.

Mexican-American War

Arkansas played a key role in aiding Texas in its war for independence with Mexico, sending troops and materials to Texas to help fight the war. The proximity of the city of Washington to the Texas border involved the town in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36. Some evidence suggests Sam Houston and his compatriots planned the revolt in a tavern at Washington in 1834.^[56] When the fighting began a stream of volunteers from Arkansas and the eastern states flowed through the town toward the Texas battle fields.

When the Mexican-American War began in 1846, Washington became a rendezvous for volunteer troops. Governor Thomas S. Drew issued a proclamation calling on the state to furnish one regiment of cavalry and one battalion of infantry to join the United States Army. Ten companies of men assembled here where they were formed into the first Regiment of Arkansas Cavalry.

Late antebellum period

The young state began to show its first signs of improving beyond a frontier wilderness in the 1850s. The growing need for cotton gave many Arkansans an avenue to become involved in market economy for the first time, a transition that made the state significantly more prosperous. At the time, the most efficient way to grow cotton was a plantation-style system, and this quickly became the norm in the southeast part of Arkansas. During the late antebellum period, most Arkansans were identified with farming and ranching. Fewer worked as carpenters, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, and wagon builders and fewer still as lawyers, doctors, and teachers. This economic shift also allowed some Arkansans to work outside the factory or field as artisans, including James Black who is credited with creating the first Bowie Knife in Arkansas during the period. Improving transportation also helped the state's economy grow. The Southwest Trail and Butterfield Overland Mail were major roads in the state, and steamboats began using the state's rivers for commerce. Arkansas increased its cotton production from 6,000,000 pounds (2,700,000 kg) in 1840 to 26,000,000 pounds (12,000,000 kg) in 1850.^[57] Arkansas and the southeast grew rapidly due to cotton, but its use of the plantation system would ultimately set the state and region behind the rest of the nation for decades.^[58] Southeast Arkansas became significantly more prosperous than the northwestern highlands, causing a rift to form between the two regions.

Although the slave issue had been tabled following the Missouri Compromise, it again came to the forefront when California's admission to the Union threatened the political balance between free and slave states. John Selden Roane, William Sebastian, Solon Borland, and Robert Ward Johnson began rallying support for the Southern cause in Arkansas, including discussing secession. However, most Arkansans were looking to compromise and preserve the Union. After the Compromise of 1850, several Family members in favor of secession acquired political office, including Elias Conway as governor. Thomas Hindman, a lawyer from Helena and strong supporter of Southern rights, acquired the congressional seat in Arkansas's northern district with the support of the Family. Hindman would later side with Henry Rector against the Family, and both were successful in 1860. During this time, the nation was continuing to grapple with the slavery issue. The Dred Scott v. Sandford decision and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry kept slavery in the news. The creation of a Republican party who wanted to restrict the spread of slavery gave abolitionists a new option at the polls.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860 when Rector became the first governor from outside the Family. Although Arkansans were leery of Lincoln, they were unsure of Rector's position with regard to secession. Hindman, Johnson, and Edward Gantt continued to advocate the Southern rights cause along with those loyal to the Family. South Carolina voted to secede in December 1860, and Hindman called for a secession vote, a move backed by Rector. The governor also forced the surrender of the Union garrison in Little Rock after rumors of reinforcing the outfit. A vote in February 1861 showed Arkansas in favor of a convention on secession but the elected delegates voted to remain in the Union. The convention was close but favored the Union, mirroring the demographics of Arkansas. Northwest Arkansas was mostly pro-Union and had a slight population majority, and the southeast primarily in favor of secession.

Located in Hempstead County, this small town is home to Historic Washington State Park. Washington was established as the first county seat in 1824. It was located on the rugged Southwest Trail (the earliest road across the state) and, because of its proximity to the [then Mexican] border, was a stopover for those (such as Sam Houston and Davy Crockett) traveling west. James Black, a talented local blacksmith, made the original Bowie Knife here in the 1830s. The knife became a worldwide symbol of Arkansas and the American frontier.

The town was also the rendezvous point for volunteers to be mustered in to fight in the Mexican War. The town experienced its period of greatest importance during the Civil War. When Little Rock fell to the Union Army in September 1863, Governor Harris Flanagin moved the state government for around two years to the town and established offices in the Hempstead County Courthouse there. Following Arkansas’s secession from the Union, Hempstead County provided its share of troops for the Confederacy, and the town became a refugee center. The closest battle was the Battle of Prairie D’Ane, around 20 miles to the east of the town. The wounded were cared for in Washington

The coming of the railroad era and the establishment of a new town (Hope) set the town on a path to slow decline. In 1875 a disastrous fire destroyed much of the business district. It was rebuilt and a railroad link with Hope in 1879 checked the decline of the town. However, another fire in 1883 swept away most of the remaining old businesses in town.The rise of Hope as the new shipping and trading center for Hempstead County reduced town population again. Records show 374 persons living in town in 1900. Recurrent attempts to move the county seat to Hope finally succeeded in 1938-39. The Washington Telegraph founded in 1840, and the only Arkansas newspaper published throughout the Civil War, printed its last issue in 1947.

People in southwest Arkansas realized the historical significance of Washington and formed the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation in 1958.

In 1973 Old Washington Historic State Park was created and today the town is one of America's premier historic villages. The town is both a state park and town intermingled. The town is a National Register of Historic Places site and an Arkansas State Park . Currently, 148 people live in a town which has arisen from the ashes so to speak to become an educational site and vital, active park offering innovative programs daily for visitors to enjoy. The park was renamed Historic Washington State Park in 2006 and includes over thirty carefully restored historic structures that serve as a continuing legacy to life in the town from 1824 to 1889. The town is home to the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives and is around 10 miles from Hope and about 40 miles from Crater of Diamonds State Park.

Hope is a small town in Hempstead County with two claims to fame: it is the birthplace of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and it showcases some of the world's largest watermelons. The town is home to the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site. The two-story white frame house on South Hervey Street was where Clinton lived from his birth in 1946 until age four. The restored Missouri-Pacific Railroad depot serves as the Hope Visitor Center & Museum and contains local history exhibits and railroad memorabilia. It is also an AMTRAK stop.

The town developed as the Cairo and Fulton Railway (predecessor to the Union Pacific) tracks were being laid from Argenta (now North Little Rock) to Fulton. The first passenger train pulled into the station in1872. James Loughborough, the railroad company’s land commissioner, named the workmen’s camp in honor of his daughter Hope. The town was incorporated in 1875. Three more railways arrived in town by 1902. The Cairo and Fulton depot, Hope’s oldest building, was restored to its original condition after serving as a freight depot for fifty-three years and the general office of Stephens Grocer Company for thirty-four years. In 1999, the Harold Stephens family donated the building to the city and it is now the Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

Nearby Historic Washington State Park is a restoration village preserving the 19th-century town of Washington, which figured prominently in Arkansas and Southwest U.S. history. Evidence suggests that Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and others plotted Texas' revolution for independence from Mexico while staying in Hope. Washington also served as the state's Confederate capital after Little Rock was captured by Union troops during the Civil War. Hope is around 120 miles from Little Rock.

Information credit: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture

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