On a recent weekend trip to Branson, my wife and I passed through Marshall, Arkansas. As many travelers along US Highway 65 do, we stopped at the beautiful overlook to take in the majestic view of the Ozark Mountains. And while those amazing views are arguably what Marshall is best known for, there’s much more to this charming city.
Marshall is the Searcy County seat and its largest city, with a population of about 1,300. The city lies at the foot of the Boston Mountain range and is about 11 miles south of America's first national river, the Buffalo National River. As such, Marshall serves as a center for area tourism. Camping, floating and hiking are just a few of the recreational opportunities that the national river offers.
The history of Marshall dates to the earliest known settlers in the region, the Paleo Indians. The Paleo lived in what is now Marshall around 15,000 years ago. Numerous Paleo artifacts have been found in the area, including pottery shards and spear points.
In 1804, after the Louisiana Purchase, the federal government began relocating Native Americans in the southeast U.S. to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. The Cherokees who were brought through Arkansas on the Trail of Tears clashed with the Osage. The Osage were one of the three main tribes of what became our state. In 1817, the Treaty of the Cherokee Agency set aside land in northwest Arkansas. This land became the first Cherokee reservation west of the Mississippi River. And to help with the conflict between the two tribes, the Cherokees extended an invitation to the Shawnee to settle in the Buffalo River area.
The Shawnee established a village southwest of present-day Marshall. The chief of the village is believed to be Chief Peter Cornstalk, the grandson and namesake of the great chief of the Shawnee during the Revolutionary War.
Chief Cornstalk married Mary Adams in the mid-1930s. She was the granddaughter of Robert Adams, who was one of the original white settlers in the area. By the late 1840s, all tribes had been moved to Indian Territory.
The first white settlement was located at the foot of Devil’s Backbone Mountain in a community called Raccoon Springs. The county seat was moved from Lebanon to Raccoon Springs in 1856, and it was renamed Burrowville (spelled Burrowsville in some early records) after Napoleon Bonaparte Burrow, a Crawford County planter and Democratic politician.
The Civil War era was a significant time of change for Marshall. The name of the town was changed, population declined for years, and after the war’s end, Arkansas became a two-party political system in what for many years was a one-party (Democratic) state. And sadly, much of the town had been burned, including the county courthouse and county records. Union-supporting residents pushed to change the town's name from Burrowville to Marshall after U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. The name change was approved by the state Legislature on March 18, 1867.
By the 1950s Marshall had become an agricultural town and strawberries were its major crop. In fact, during this time, the town promoted itself as the “Strawberry Capital of the World.” Of course, this didn’t sit too well with Bald Knob (White County), who promoted itself as the same.
But all good things must end, and by the late 1960s, the strawberry industry was moving to states out west such as California and Texas. General stores and mercantiles were closing and being replaced with national companies like Sears and Walmart. These conditions and several others caused the beginning of a major change in the economy of the small Searcy County town.
Today, Marshall’s economy is a mix of retail, general services and limited manufacturing, but tourism is its driving force.
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