The Arkansas Territory was established by an act of Congress in 1819, and Fayetteville’s first known settlers began to arrive in 1823.
Northwest Arkansas remained a generally lawless region because of its proximity to the wild frontier, which was not regulated by any form of organized government. Outlaws such as Belle Starr, Jesse James and the Younger Brothers took advantage of this geographic anomaly to carry out their misdeeds.
On May 6, 1861, Arkansas became the eighth state to leave the Union during the Civil War. Northwest Arkansas was strategically important to both the North and South, as both sides courted the Indians in the adjacent territory, and Northwest Arkansas’ horses, wheat, blacksmith shops and mills were key to provisioning armies.
Benton County was named for Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. senator from Missouri who worked to have Arkansas admitted to the Union as a slave state when Michigan was admitted as a free state.
Bentonville suffered terribly from the ravages of the Civil War. Southern sympathizers killed a soldier left behind by retreating Union forces in 1862. When federal troops heard of the death, they returned the next day and burned 36 buildings.
After the war, the state undertook a search for the ideal place to build a land-grant college.
On Jan. 22, 1872, Arkansas Industrial College opened its doors. It would become the University of Arkansas 27 years later.
In 1881, five thousand people applauded the arrival of Northwest Arkansas’ first train. Within a year, 125 rail cars of wheat, 100 cars of green apples and an impressive shipment of eggs and produce rolled out of Fayetteville. Rogers actually began as a railroad town when the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad pushed its line through.
The city of Springdale was influenced by the relocation of Cherokee tribes from Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas in 1817 by the U.S. government. U.S. Highway 412 is built along the route once known as the Trail of Tears, the path the Cherokees walked on their way to the Oklahoma Territory. A number of historic sites and places of interest highlighting Northwest Arkansas’ past can be found in the area.
Pea Ridge National Military Park
Ten miles northeast of Rogers along U.S. Highway 62, Pea Ridge National Military Park protects 4,300 acres in and around the site of the Battle of Pea Ridge, which took place March 6-8, 1862. The battle was the first major Civil War encounter in Arkansas, and it turned out to be the largest battle fought west of the Mississippi River. For more information, call (479) 451-8122.
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