Arkansas Post National Memorial, located about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Gillett, Arkansas, commemorates key events related to European-American history that occurred on site and in the vicinity: the trading post was the first successful French (and European) settlement in the Lower Mississippi River Valley (1686); site of an American Revolutionary War era skirmish (1783); the first territorial capital of Arkansas (1819–1821); and site of the ...
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Arkansas Post National Memorial, located about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Gillett, Arkansas, commemorates key events related to European-American history that occurred on site and in the vicinity: the trading post was the first successful French (and European) settlement in the Lower Mississippi River Valley (1686); site of an American Revolutionary War era skirmish (1783); the first territorial capital of Arkansas (1819–1821); and site of the American Civil War Battle of Fort Hindman (1863).
Arkansas Post was founded in 1686 by Henri de Tonti as a trading post at the site of a Quapaw Indian village named Osotouy, near where the Arkansas River enters the Mississippi River. There the French conducted the first documented Christian services in present-day Arkansas. The site became a strategic point for France, Spain, the United States, and the Confederate States at different times during its history.
On 17 April 1783, Indian traderJames Colbert conducted a raid against Spanish forces...
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