Fayetteville History

Dateline: Fayetteville, Arkansas

Welcome to FayettevilleHistory.com, a compendium of information about the history and culture of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The town was founded in 1828 on land that had previously been set aside for the western Cherokee Nation. Before the Cherokees, the land had been hunted by the Osage and Quapaw tribes. The town has continued to grow during the last 170 years into a city that today is routinely named among the best places in America to live, attend college, own a business or retire.

Welcome to FayettevilleHistory.com, a compendium of information about the history and culture of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The town was founded in 1828 on land that had previously been set aside for the western Cherokee Nation. Before the Cherokees, the land had been hunted by the Osage and Quapaw tribes. The town has continued to grow during the last 170 years into a city that today is routinely named among the best places in America to live, attend college, own a business or retire.

Dedication of Butterfield Trail Marker

City, state and federal officials attended the unveiling of a new interpretive marker commemorating a remnant of the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route.

Federal officers of the National Trails System also held a meeting with the public to discuss the upcoming assessment of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route for potential inclusion as a national trail.

Aaron Mahr, superintendent of the Intermountain Region, and Frank Norris, a historian for the National Trails System, talked with about 40 people at the Fayetteville Town Center about the process that the National Park Service will follow during the next three years to document the Butterfield Route and its resources.

Mahr said a congressional decision to award National Trail status will rest on three criteria:

• A National Trail must follow an established historic route.
• The trail must have national historical significance.
• The trail must have potential for public recreational opportunities with historic and heritage resources along the route.

The Butterfield Overland Mail Route started in Tipton, Mo., and Memphis, Tenn., and joined at Fort Smith before heading west through the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California before finishing at San Francisco. The transcontinental stage line only lasted three years but put in place the organizational foundation for what would later inspire the Pony Express and the transcontinental railroads.

Read more about the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.

Norris described the questions that he and the park service would be researching to determine whether the trail meets the above criteria:

• First, where was the route's right-of-way? Can it be determined?
• What are the trail's major resources? Are there stations, stables, ferries, museums, parks or other contributing factors still along the route?
• How much of the trail qualifies as significant? The Butterfield operation shifted its routes in a couple of places. Is each shift worthy of inclusion?
• What should the route be called?
• How best can the trail be managed if it is designated a national trail?
• How much public support is there for preservation of the route?

There are 20 designated national trails in the United States so far, ranging in length from the 60-mile-long Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail to the 2,000-mile-long Oregon Trail. One historic trail, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, already comes through Fayetteville.

Gallows Hill

Prior to the establishment of National Cemetery at the southern end of present-day Government Avenue, the hillock upon which it sits was originally known as Gallows Hill.

View Gallows Hill in a larger map

The hilltop had a hanging gallows from at least the 1840s to the Civil War. The first people known to have been hung at the gallows were Crawford and Lavinia Burnett. They were convicted of being accessories to the murder of Johnathan Sibley. Their son and one of the son's cousins had committed the murder. The son was later captured in Missouri and followed his parents to the gallows.

During the "Arrington and Wallace War" of 1840, vigilantes under the direction of Alfred Arrington camped at the hill the night before entering Fayetteville. They intented to arrest Willis Wallace for murder, but he and supporters had barricaded themselves into his grocery on the square and commandeered two cannon for defense.

After the Civil War, the hill became home to the National Cemetery and Oak Cemetery.

South Fayetteville in the Early 1890s

The panoramic photo above was taken about 1890, showing the buildings surrounding the square at far right with the cupola of the old Washington County Courthouse, which then stood at the center of the square, showing above the other buildings. The traces of roads coming off the hillside into the valley are, from left, Center Street, Mountain Street and Rock Street. The valley, known now as Spout Spring Hollow but also called Tin Cup Hollow for many years, is mostly hidden by the roll of the hillside in the foreground. At the extreme left is the old City Roller Mill, also called the Old White Mill. It was near the intersection of Huntsville and Mill streets. The photographer is unknown.

Historical markers of Fayetteville

Historical Markers in Fayetteville

Click on the album at left or follow the link below to see information about the historical markers in this slide show as well as a map showing their locations.

Washington-Willow Historic District, circa 1890

The growing neighborhoods that today make up the Washington-Willow Historic District are shown in this circa 1890 photo, looking northwest from Mount Sequoyah. Old Main is barely visible at the upper left. The diagonal road from lower right to about the center of the picture is East Lafayette Street, and the cross street is North Willow Avenue. The hill near center is Mount Nord and the large building on it is the old North School, built in 1885 about where Washington Elementary stands today. The white church near the center is the St. Joseph Catholic Chapel built in 1878. The photographer is unknown.

Elliott West Has New History of Nez Perces

The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story, by Elliott West, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Arkansas, tells the story of the Nez Perces, who lived in the region of present-day Idaho and western Washington and Oregn.

See also the press release from the university.

Fayette Junction

Fayette Junction is the name of a small railroad switchyard on the south side of Fayetteville where the mainline of the Frisco Railway was intersected by the Fayetteville and Little Rock R.R., better known as the St. Paul Branch, which went east from Fayetteville deep into Madison County.

The main line of Frisco runs north-south parallel to Razorback Road. The St. Paul Branch went almost due east. Remnants of the junction still exist at the corner of Cato Springs and Vale Avenue, although the spur line to St. Paul has been long gone.

Smoky Row

The section of Center Street between College Avenue and the Fayetteville square became known as "Smoky Row" during the 19th century, although the exact origin is unknown.

Up to three explanations have been offered over the years:

1. Prior to the use of natural gas to heat buildings, the many offices, eateries and boarding houses along Center Street used wood-burning and later coal-burning stoves, pumping ample smoke into the thoroughfare.
2. Because of the proximity of the old courthouse, many of the offices along the street were leased to lawyers, whose frequent use of cigars caused the row to be smoky.
3. Another explanation has also sometimes been put forward: Smoky Row was named for the creeping of fog from the hollow behind the old courthouse up into the street on cool mornings.

This latter choice seems more likely an effort to explain a name that already existed rather than a source for the name. Fog, after all, would have crept onto Meadow, Spring and Mountain streets as easily as Center Street. (Thanks to the comment below for spurring further reading.)

Mount Sequoyah

View Larger Map

Originally called East Mountain, the largest mountain in Fayetteville was renamed Mount Sequoyah when the hilltop was given to the state Methodist Assembly for use as a religious retreat. It was named in honor of the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, Sequoyah, and opened for its first summer assembly in 1923. The center is surrounded by Skyline Drive.

Nearly 70 acres on the east side of the mountain was bought back by the city in 2003 to create a city park called Mount Sequoyah Woods.

The city's first water treatment plant and water reservoirs were built on the west face of the mountain between Summit Avenue and Oklahoma Way, high enough to provide water pressure to the top floors of Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus. The reservoirs were removed in 1998 and turned into a city park called Mount Sequoyah Gardens.

The rest of Mount Sequoyah extends northeast to Shadowridge Drive.

Mount Nord

View Larger Map

Roughly bounded by Louise Street on the north, College Avenue on the east, Lafayette Street on the south and Vandeventer on the west, this oval-shaped mount rises about 140 feet above the valley of Scull Creek and separates downtown Fayetteville from Wilson Park. The residential neighborhoods on Mount Nord were developed between 1905 and 1925, including the home of the Fulbright family and reconstruction of the Arkansas House, since razed, on the west end of the mountain, facing the University of Arkansas campus.

Washington Elementary School is on the eastern slope of the Mountain.

The Mount Nord Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, becoming Fayetteville's second historic district.