The Arkansas Post (French: Poste de Arkansea) was the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley and present-day Arkansas. Henri de Tonti established it in 1686 as a French trading post on the lower Arkansas River.[2] The French and Spanish traded with the Quapaw people for years.
They and the Americans, who acquired this territory in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, considered the site of strategic value. The United States designated Arkansas Post as the first capital of the Arkansas Territory in 1819. Little Rock was designated as the capital in 1821. During the years of fur trading, Arkansas Post was protected by a series of forts. The forts and associated settlements were located at three known sites and possibly a fourth. Some of the historic structures have been lost as the waterfront has been subject to erosion and flooding.[2][3]
The land encompassing the second (and fourth) Arkansas Post site (Red Bluff) was designated as a state park in 1929. In 1960 about 758 acres (307 ha) of land at the site were protected as a National Memorial and National Historic Landmark.[4] It commemorates the complex history of several cultures and time periods: the Quapaw, French settlers who were the first colonists to inhabit the small entrepôt, the short period of Spanish rule, an American Revolutionary War skirmish in 1783, the settlement's role as first territorial capital of Arkansas, and as the site of an American Civil War battle in 1863.[3][5]
Since the 1950s, three archeological excavations have been conducted at the site. Experts say the most extensive cultural resources at the site are archeological, both for the 18th and 19th-century European-American settlements, and the earlier Quapaw villages.[3] Due to changes in the river and navigation measures, the water level has risen closer to the height of the bluffs, which used to be well above the river. The site is now considered low lying. Erosion and construction of dams on the river have resulted in the remains of three of the historic forts now being under water in the river channel.[3]
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