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Subject: [CA-GOLDRUSH-L] Fort Smith & Van Buren, Ark.- Southern Trail Gates to CA - 1849
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 18:04:56 EDT

Howdy,
The Western Arkansas frontier towns of Fort Smith and Van Buren were
prominent starting points for overland emigrants using the Southern Trails to
CA during the gold rush era
The village of Fort Smith, Arkansas was first established near a "log
army post"(?) in 1817. Abandoned around 1824, it was reestablishd some twenty
years later. . Like other small hamlets and villages bordering the Indian
territory its reported principal revenue was from the sale of whiskey to the
Indians, as well as the white drinking population. Fort Smith was situated at
the junction of the Poteau and Arkansas Rivers, with Van Buren was five miles
below.. The Canadiain River's north fork flowed into its main stream, some 40
miles west of Fort Smith. After that, travelers faced a 800 mile westward trek
to Santa Fe.(from Patricia Etter's "An American Odyssey")..
In competition for CA emigrants with their Texas neighbors to the
southwest, these frontier towns advertised widely in such as "Fort Smith
Herald," "Arkansas State Democrat," "Arkansas Banner," "Arkansas State
Gazette" and "Mississippian" to convince the public that through its domain
ran the BEST route to the CA gold mines. I must have worked some because later
on of the NY newspapers came out agreeing with them.
As early as September 23, 1848, the Fort Smith citizens passed
resolutions, approved by the Arkansas state legislature, petitioning Congress
to authorize a survey and establish a NATIONAL road from Fort Smith to
California. Even though a US Senate military committee, headed by Jefferson
DAVIS, approved the plan, no action was taken.
But the war department did order Captain Randolph B. MARCY to command
an escort of dragoons and infantry for the protection of the emigrants from
Fort Smith. This command included a topographical engineer named Lt. James H.
SIMPSON. The command was to proceed(it left on April 4[9?],1849) from Ft.
Smith 'along the valley of the main Canadian, by the most practicable route'
to Santa Fe. The expedition's object was 'to ascertain the best route from
this point[Fort Smith] to New Mexico and California"(Ark.St.Dem.-Feb. 9,
1849).
Editor/annotator Ralph B. BIEBER writes in "Southern Trails to
California in 1849":
"Promise of government protection led many emigrants to choose the route
through Arkansas as the best way to the gold mines. During the spring and
summer of 1849 about 3,000 argonauts(another editor said 2,000 were encamped
around Fort Smith by April, 1949) from at least 25 states assembled at Fort
Smith and Van Buren.... The largest number came from New York and the southern
states. Numerous river steamers were kept busy night and day transporting the
gold seekers up the Arkansas to Fort Smith and Van Buren."
On March 11, 1849, a prospective gold-seeker wrote from Fort Smith:
"Here, it is said, we are on the threshold of the vast prairie, the
immensity and solitude of which is only interrupted by a few wooded streams,
and a single range of timber mountains. This will be a new life to me, but my
heart beats with anticipation of pleasurable excitement during the trip...
This place[Fort Smith] is crowded and I would suggest to emigrants coming up,
to stop at Van Buren. It is a larger town[?}, and as much more business is
done there, the goods are cheaper. Horses, mules and provisions, the latter in
particular, those we now get here, were laid in at Van Buren."(Grant Foreman's
"Marcy & the Gold Seekers.)
Probably the first gold-seekers to arrive in Fort Smith were reported in
the "Arkansas Gazette" on December 8, 1848 as, "Four emigrants from New York,
with a mule team and all the necessary fixings, passed through Little Rock
today en route to California. They intend to go with the company from Fort
Smith." Reportedly, this company was the "Little Rock and California
Assciation," - one of whose members was our friend 49er/diarist Robert
BROWNLEE( Remember his winter of 1849 pack mule trip from Stockton to Agua
Fria in the mud(doby?:-).
Anyway, let's rejoin BROWNLEE as he writes in his journal:
"We [Little Rock and California Association] were to rendezvous at Fort
Smith, about 300 miles up the river(Arkansas?], at the mouth of the north fork
of the Candian[river] which took us almost to Santa Fe. We stayed in Camp at
Fort Smith some time.waiting on different portions of the train, which had to
come 400 miles to connect with us, and the roads at that season were very soft
and miry, it took them a long time. After a while, about the latter part of
March[1849], some 60 wagons, with from four to six mules to a team, and each
man with his saddle horse and rifle joined us....
"After a while we made a start[left Fort Smith on April 16, 1849], but the
roads were very soft, loads heavy, and mules GREEN as well as the men...":-)).
NOTE: For perspective: The first gold-seekers supposedly left western
Arkansas in March, 1849, from both Fort Smith and Van Buren. They "journeyed
along the Canadian river across the Pecos river to the vacinity of Santa
Fe."(Beiber, So.Trails toCA).

Sorry, a little choppy - from a bunch of stuff:-)
Bob Norris in Dallas
BNorris166aol.com>

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