The Founding: 1686
Arkansas Post was born from the ambitions of the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, to establish a trade route from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
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- Henri de Tonti: While La Salle was the visionary, it was his lieutenant, Henri de Tonti (“The Iron Hand”), who actually established the post. In 1686, Tonti left six men at a Quapaw village near the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers to establish a trading house.
- The First Capital: For over a century, Arkansas Post was the center of trade, government, and military power in the region. When the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase territory…