The Bluff Dwellers were the first known inhabitants of what is now Arkansas. These primitive people lived in caves and on rock shelves in northeastern Arkansas before 500 A.D. The Mound Builders, a more advanced people, flourished in southern Arkansas in later pre-Columbian times. The Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage Indians were in Arkansas when the white man began to explore. The Quapaw (originally Ugkhaph, later Arkansas), after whom the state was named, migrated from the Ohio Valley around 1500.
The region remained in French hands until the Treaty of Fontainebleau, 1762, by which it was ceded to Spain. Late in the 18th century, settlement began. In 1800 the territory was returned to France in the Treaty of San Ildefonso. It was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803
The United States formally took possession in 1804, when United States troops entered Arkansas Post. Arkansas was part of Louisiana until 1812, when it became a district in the Missouri Territory. In 1819 Arkansas Territory (including what is now Oklahoma) was created, with Arkansas Post as the territory capital. The capital was moved to Little Rock in 1821
Arkansas seceded from the Union in May, 1861, and joined the Confederacy, although some of its citizens favored the Union
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