The North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail:
Historical Contexts Report

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Amanda L. Paige, Research Assistant
Fuller Bumpers, American Native Press Fellow
Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., Director

Note: The Site Reports of the ANPA are intended for use by the general public. Permission to reprint them in their entirety is required by the authors.

Part III:

Removal Routes and Transportation

Indian removal was America’s first experiment in moving large numbers of people over long distances. Thus two of the primary concerns in any research on removal are the routes traveled and the modes of transportation. The North Little Rock site offers a rare opportunity to examine both subjects because of its location at the convergence of major land and water routes through the state. Tribal people who passed by or through the site had traveled by practically every mode of transportation available at the time. Those who traveled the water routes went by sailing ships, steamboats, or towed keelboats and flatboats, or a combination of them. Those who traveled by land had done so by train, wagon, or ox cart or on horseback or by foot. Of the other states through which removal routes passed, Arkansas had the least developed system of roads. The terrain, especially the swamps of eastern Arkansas, caused many removal parties to use a combination of land and water routes or to split into different parties and take separate routes. Navigation of the Arkansas River was at times unpredictable, and in times of low water, the North Little Rock site became a place where parties decided to continue to Indian Territory by land or to take their chances on the river.

Because of the strategic location of the North Little Rock site on the removal routes, the following survey of the major land and water routes at the beginning of removal as well as the changes in routes occasioned by removal will provide historical contexts for interpretation at the site.

Roads

The capital of Arkansas Territory had been established at Little Rock only a decade before the first removal party came through the North Little Rock site. Shortly after its establishment, territorial and national officials realized that settlement of the interior of the territory and military protection of its western frontier depended on construction of a road system. Travelers from the northeast could take the Southwest Trail that crossed the river just below Little Rock and continued southwest to the Red River country. It was travel directly across the territory from Memphis to points west that became the prime concern. Thus in early 1824, Congress passed legislation authorizing the construction of a Military Road from Memphis to Little Rock. During the next year a route was surveyed, and contracts were let for construction in the summer of 1826. Much of the road to the sixty-fourth mile west of Memphis had been completed when Lt. Charles Thomas, superintendent of the construction, reported in 1827 that the bottom lands of the Cache River and Bayou de View presented insurmountable obstacles to construction and asked for a change in the route. From the sixty-fourth mile, he wanted the route to go southwest to Mouth of Cache (present-day Clarendon), where there was a ferry over the White River. William Strong built this segment of the road in 1828. That year, as well, the road from Mouth of Cache to the headwaters of the Bayou of the Two Prairies between present-day Jacksonville and Furlow was completed in fairly short order because the terrain through which it passed was high grassland known as the Grand Prairie.¹

Meanwhile, construction had gone forward on the western end of the Memphis to Little Rock road. Prior to construction of the Military Road, few roads existed in the area surrounding the North Little Rock site. In addition to the Southwest Trail from the north, a road from Cadron (near present-day Conway) directly east to Crossroads and Old Austin skirted the headwaters of the Bayou Meto and Bayou of the Two Prairies and went southeast through the Grand Prairie to Arkansas Post. In 1826, Wright Daniel established a stage that ran every two weeks from his ferry, up the Southwest Trail to Old Austin, and from there to Arkansas Post. After the Military Road from Mouth of Cache to Little Rock was completed, the road from Arkansas Post was rerouted to connect with that road at Mrs. Black’s public house near present-day Tollville. In 1827, Samson Gray of the Bayou Meto settlement received a contract to build fifteen miles of road from Little Rock to the Bayou of the Two Prairies, where the road from Mouth of Cache would meet it. By the end of 1827, the Military Road from Crittenden’s Ferry at the North Little Rock site to Fort Smith had been nearly completed.²

When removal began, then, a system of roads connected the North Little Rock site east to Memphis and both west and southwest to Indian Territory. The road left the Mississippi opposite Memphis and went west, crossing Shell Lake, Blackfish Lake, and St. Francis River, all of which had ferries. From the St. Francis, the road crossed Crowley’s Ridge by way of Village Creek to William Strong’s public house north of present-day Forrest City. (See Illustration 20). From there it continued west across the L’Anguille River, which was bridged, to the sixty-fourth mile west of Memphis. There it turned southeast, passing near present-day Brinkley to the Mouth of Cache (now Clarendon), where there was a ferry across the White River. From there the road passed westerly across the Grand Prairie to Brownsville, just north of present-day Lonoke, west from there to present-day Jacksonville, where it joined the old Southwest Trail, turned south, crossed the Bayou Meto, which had been bridged, followed the old trail past the present-day McAlmont community, where it turned southwest, skirted a low range of hills, dropped off into the river basin, crossed a small cypress swamp, which had been bridged, and followed the high ground between two large cypress swamps to the river bank just east of Crittenden’s Ferry. This road appears on 1855 plats of the area and Civil War era maps (See Illustrations 1 and 2 )

Removal revived the segment of the old Cadron to Arkansas Post road between Cadron Creek and a point near Brownsville, which had received less use after construction of the Military Road between the North Little Rock site and Fort Smith. This route took travelers from Mrs. Black’s public house in the Grand Prairie to James Irwin’s settlement or “stand” at Old Austin, past Crossroads and the headwaters of Palarm Bayou to Cadron. Officials preferred that removal parties that had no reason to go to the North Little Rock site use this more direct route from the Grand Prairie to Indian Territory. ³

Removal also caused a change in the road from Memphis that had significant bearing on the North Little Rock site. Anticipating Choctaw removal through the central part of the territory, Congress appropriated funds in 1832 to repair the road from Memphis to Little Rock, placing the repairs under the direction of newly appointed Territorial Governor John Pope. Instead of repairs, Pope authorized a rerouting of the road. The contract for the first five miles from Crittenden’s Ferry went to David Rorer and his friends Samson Gray and Samuel M. Rutherford. This was without question a political deal, which was fortunate for Rorer, whose ferry enterprise had suffered from restricted business because the Memphis road led to Crittenden’s Ferry, bypassing Rorer’s by 200 to 300 yards. Rorer had intended to cut a private road to intersect the public road when politics intervened in his behalf. In earlier years, Gray had had the contract for improving the original road and had built bridges over Bayou Meto and over a cypress swamp near the North Little Rock site. Thus he knew the area well. They began construction at Crittenden’s Ferry, routed the road along the river bank to Rorer’s Ferry and from there along the river and northeasterly to intersect the Daniel Ferry road and from there northerly to its juncture with the Bayou Meto-Little Rock road near Wilie Beasly’s farm (See Illustration 1).⁴ The five miles of road that Rorer and his partners constructed would have taken it approximately to present-day Prothro Junction. This route, through the Rose City section of North Little Rock, is on high ground, the land falling sharply away to the river bottom on one side and gradually away to former swamp land on the other

The new road gave Rorer the advantage. Because most of the traffic came from the east, travelers arrived at his ferry first. Crittenden and his friends argued that Pope had rerouted the road to destroy the Crittenden Ferry. Pope’s and Rorer’s friends countered that Crittenden’s prices were “extortion,” which people were tired of, that it was Rorer’s modern ferry that had destroyed Crittenden’s business, and that the new road crossed no swamps but followed high ground until it intersected the old. The political controversy raged, and there were attempts to sabotage the road until January of 1833, when the Pulaski County court declared Rorer’s the public road to Bayou Meto in place of the old one.⁵

By the time the Rorer’s new road was completed, Choctaw removal was once more underway. When the removal “season” of 1832-33 began, the fate of Crittenden’s Ferry was sealed and the future of Rorer’s assured by the cholera epidemic then raging along the Mississippi. The Indians, who had contracted the disease at Memphis, would not be allowed to cross at Crittenden’s Ferry and go through Little Rock but would be routed to the east of town by way of Rorer’s because of local fear that they would spread cholera. The city leaders of Little Rock asked Captain Jacob Brown, the disbursing agent for Indian removal at Little Rock, to have a road built from the river on the east side of town to connect with the existing road to Washington south of town to prevent the Choctaws from infecting the people.⁶ The crossing point on the east side of town was David Rorer’s ferry, which landed at the foot of present-day Ferry Street. The road that Brown opened probably followed a portion of Ferry street south. This new road laid the Rorer-Crittenden controversy to rest. All remaining Choctaw contingents and, later, all Chickasaw contingents crossing the river did so at the lower ferry.

Removal and Internal Improvements

Indian removal coincided with the period when Arkansas was making its transition from territory to state and was beginning to develop its economic base. It also coincided with efforts on the part of territorial leaders to encourage immigration to the territory. Leaders pushed for federal aid in road construction and improvement on that basis, but early on realized that removal provided an additional telling argument for appropriations for internal improvements.⁷ In 1832, for example, William Clark wrote to Senator William Hendricks of Indiana regarding the road from Helena to Mouth of Cache: “It is unquestionably a road of very great importance to Arkansas and it will aid the general government much in the removal of the Indians.” To his letter A. H. Sevier added a postscript: “This point is immediately opposite the Chickasaw nation of Indians—when they migrate, they will of course travel this road. It should be improved in time for them.”⁸In November 1833, in a similar vein, in a memorial to Congress, the Territorial Assembly sought improvement of the road from Arkansas Post to Mrs. Black’s in the Grand Prairie, arguing in part that the road would “facilitate the removal of that portion of the Southern Indians who may be destined to locate on the waters of Arkansas & be the means of great savings in transportation to the Government.”⁹

Construction and improvement of roads, however, did not guarantee convenient transportation. The quality and condition of the roads in Arkansas varied. For many years after statehood in 1836, the state did not provide revenue for road construction.¹⁰ The military roads were unquestionably the best, but they were far from adequate. Particularly problematic throughout the removal period was the segment of the Military Road between Memphis and the St. Francis River. In 1834 appropriations were made for surveying and reconstructing the road, which was rerouted in some places (See Illustration 20). The road from the St. Francis to the North Little Rock site was considered unfinished as late as 1836 and 1837, when estimates were made on the costs of completing it.¹¹ Despite efforts at improvement, however, the forty-mile stretch, usually referred to simply as the “Mississippi Swamp,” was subject to flooding much of the time and was either impassable or almost so most of the time. The Swamp, perhaps more than any other single factor caused removal parties or their conductors to choose water transportation rather than land.

Waterways

When removal began, steam navigation had already proved feasible on the Arkansas and White rivers, the two waterways that brought removal parties either part way or the whole way to the North Little Rock site.¹² In times of normal or high water, primarily in the spring, it was possible for steamboats to carry Muscogees and Florida Indians by way of the Mississippi and Arkansas from New Orleans to Fort Gibson, Choctaws from Vicksburg; and Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Muscogees from Memphis. Cherokees could travel the entire distance from Tuscumbia, Alabama, by way of the Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. In times of low water, however, steamboats had difficulty reaching Little Rock or grounded on sandbars at various points below it, such as Fourche Bar about seven miles downstream. In 1831, appealing for funds to clear the river of snags and other obstructions, Arkansans used the prospect of Indian removal to make their arguments. William Trimble, speaker of the Arkansas House, said that “every branch of the river is, or shortly will be, lined with numerous tribes of Indians, with whom the Government contemplates a continual and friendly intercourse. The subject could not be the less interesting to the nation, and to the Territory, should those relations be changed, (which is not improbable,) and we should find ourselves assailed by a savage alliance—a numerous, fierce, and desolating foe.”¹³ By 1832, snags had become such a hazard that the U. S. House of Representatives sought to improve navigation by transferring government snag boats from the upper Mississippi and Ohio during the winter months. Removal of obstructions began in early August 1833, and by the following February, the snag boats Archimedes and Heliopolis had worked their way up river as far as Little Rock.¹⁴

Water levels on the Arkansas, preferences of the contractors and conductors, or simple convenience made use of the White River an acceptable alternative. At no time during removal was it impossible to ascend from its mouth to Rock Roe, a few miles below Mouth of Cache. There, Indians and supplies were offloaded, and the removal parties traveled overland by way of the Military Road from Mouth of Cache through the Grand Prairie to the North Little Rock site or from the Grand Prairie near Brownsville to Cadron by way of Crossroads.

Low water on the Arkansas increased activity related to removal at the North Little Rock site. In those times, Little Rock became the turnaround point for the larger, deeper draft steamboats. The site thus became a transfer point for many removal contingents, some taking the Military Road toward Fort Gibson and others transferring to lighter draft boats that could ply the shallow waters upstream. A roll call of steamboats employed in Indian removal at the site include the following:

In Choctaw removal the Reindeer, Walter Scott, Brandywine, Harry Hill,
Archimedes, Thomas Yeatman, and Volant;

In Muscogee removal, the Harry Hill, Lamplighter, Majestic, Revenue,
John Nelson, Thomas Yeatman, Black Hawk, Lady Byron, and Fox;

            In Florida Indian removal the Compromise, Fox, Itasca, Renown, Liverpool.
            Ozark, Mt. Pleasant, Livingston, Tecumseh, North St. Louis, Buckeye,
            Orleans, John Jay, Little Rock, President, Swan, Lucy Walker,
            Quapaw, and Cotton Plant;

In Chickasaw removal the Cavalier, Fox, DeKalb, and Kentuckian;

In Cherokee removal the Little Rock, Itasca, Smelter, and Victoria.

Most of these boats were involved in the regular traffic on the Arkansas, and advertisements for them were commonplace in the Arkansas Gazette.¹⁵Two of the boats, the Victoria and Lucy Walker, were Cherokee owned. Lighter draft boats such as the Fox, Mt. Pleasant, Tecumseh, and North St. Louis were brought into service at Little Rock at times of low water to carry removal parties upstream.

Before boarding steamboats in New Orleans, a number of the Florida Indian removal parties had sailed to the mouth of the Mississippi aboard brigs such as the Laurence Copeland and schooners such as the Harbinger. From there the sailing ships were towed by steamer to the U. S. Barracks at New Orleans, where passengers were transferred to steamboats that brought them to the North Little Rock site.

Overall, the water routes provided the quickest and least difficult method of moving large numbers of Indians from east to west (See Part IV [Chickasaw Removal] and Part V [Conditions on Boats] below).

Notes

1. For details of the funding, planning, and construction of these roads, see Julia Ward Longnecker, “A Road Divided: From Memphis to Little Rock through the Great Mississippi Swamp,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 44 (Autumn 1985), 203-219.

2. “Military Roads,” American State Papers, Military Affairs (1831), 4: 27. See also Arkansas Gazette, February 25, 1825; January 3, 1826; March 20, June 12, August 21, September 4 and 18, October 2 and 30, November 13, and December 4, 1827; January 8, 1828. For Gray’s involvement in road and bridge construction, see Carolyn Yancey Little, “Samson Gray and the Bayou Meto Settlement, 1820-1836,” Pulaski County Historical Review 39 (Spring 1984): 2-16.

3. 23^rd Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Executive Document 512, I 443. See also

Arkansas Advocate, October 31, 1834 and December 4, 1835; Arkansas Gazette, September 26 and October 10, 1832, October 32, 1834, and December 4, 1835. Carolyn Gray of Jacksonville, Arkansas, has extensive unpublished research on this route.

4. Margaret Ross, “Lawyer David Rorer Dabbled in Politics During Nine Years in Arkansas Territory,” Arkansas Gazette, May 21, 1967; Little, “Samson Gray and the Bayou Meto Settlement, 1820-1836,” 11-12.

5. Arkansas Gazette, January 8 and 16, and April 24, 1833; Ross, “Lawyer
David Rorer.”

6. Arkansas Gazette, November 7, 14, and 21, 1832; Arkansas Advocate, November
14, 1832.

7. See, e. g., Memorial to Congress by the Territorial Assembly, November 2, 1831, in Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the United States- Arkansas Territory 1829-36 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 19340, 408.

8. Ibid, 508.

9. Ibid., 830.

10. Robert B. Walz, “Migration into Arkansas, 1820-1880,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 17 (Winter 1958-59), 321.

11. See 23^rd Congress, 2^nd Session, House Document 83; 24^th Congress, 1^st Session, House Document 300, 1; “Amount of Appropriations Necessary to Complete Certain Military Roads,” American State Papers, Military Affairs (1837), 6: 985.

12. A steamboat reached the North Little Rock site as early as 1822. For background
on steamboat traffic on Arkansas waterways preceding and during removal, see Grant
Foreman, “River Navigation in the Early Southwest,” Mississippi Valley Historical
Review 15 (June 1928), 34-55, and Duane Huddleston, “The Volant and Reindeer, Early
Arkansas Steamboats,” Pulaski County Historical Review 14 (June 1976), 21-33; Mattie
Brown, “River Transportation in Arkansas, 1819-1890,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1,
No. 4 (1942), 342-354; and Sarah Fitzgerald, “Steamboating the Arkansas,” The Journal,
Fort Smith Historical Society 6 (September 1982), 2-25.

13. 22^nd Congress, 1^st Session, House Document 227, 4.

14. Ibid., 1-5; Arkansas Gazette, January 21 and February 4 and 11, 1834.

15. See e.g., advertisements and steamboat registers in Arkansas Gazette, March 22
and May 10, 1836, and May 9, May 30, and June 6, 1838. For details about some of the
boats on the list, see Huddleston, “The Volant and Reindeer,” 21-33; Foreman, “River
Navigation in the Early Southwest,” 34-55.