The Town of Many Firsts

                Formerly known as Old Davidsonville State Park, Davidsonville Historic State Park near Pocahontas (Randolph County) preserves the location of the frontier settlement of Davidsonville. Davidsonville was located in Lawrence County—one of the original counties created in the Arkansas Territory. The town was home to Arkansas’ first post office and county courthouse. 

                Founded in 1815, at the site of several log cabins and buildings, Davidsonville became a bustling riverport, as it was located where the Eleven Point River and the Spring River merge with the Black River. The town also became an important stop on the historic Southwest Trail. 

                Davidsonville was originally known as Lawrence after the county it served as the county seat of. The town was later renamed Davidsonville for John Davidson, a native North Carolinian, who represented Lawrence County in the territorial legislature.

                The first post office in what would become Arkansas began operating in Davidsonville in 1817. In 1820, the first federal land office in the Arkansas Territory was opened in the town. Another first for Davidsonville occurred in 1822, when the first courthouse in the Arkansas Territory, a two-story brick building, was built there. The census taken that year showed the town had 461 residents.

                However, as fast as the town grew, it was nearly abandoned by the mid-1830s. The Southwest Trail was moved to higher ground shortly after the town’s founding, thus greatly diminishing Davidsonville’s importance. In 1828, the federal land office was relocated to Batesville (Independence County). In 1829, the county seat and courthouse were moved to the newly formed town of Jackson. By the time Arkansas became the twenty-fifth state in June 1836, Davidsonville had become a ghost town.

                In March 1957, the Arkansas General Assembly voted to approve Act 148, which preserved the abandoned town’s site for a state park. However, funding for the park was not appropriated until 1979. Under the direction of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Old Davidsonville State Park was built atop the former townsite. Today, the 163-acre park, now called Davidsonville Historic State Park, offers such amenities as a visitors' center, gift shop, picnic tables, pavilions, and playgrounds. Popular recreational activities in the park include camping, canoeing, hiking, and swimming. In 2016, the park’s visitors’ center underwent an extensive renovation featuring a replica of an 1820s hunter-trapper flatboat and a large display of historic finds from archeological digs at the old townsite. Archeological excavations are still conducted at Historic Davidsonville State Park and continue to uncover roads, streets, foundations, and various artifacts of early-frontier life in Arkansas. 

                Also located within the park boundaries are several historical markers, a walking trail at the old town site, and two pioneer cemeteries. In April 2014, two “ghost structures,” open frameworks that outline the appearance of a two-story dogtrot-style cabin and the two-story county courthouse, were erected on park grounds.

                Throughout the year, park interpreters offer several events for visitors, including the popular Ghosts of Old Davidsonville program held in late October and the biannual Black River Rendezvous in mid-September. The Ghosts of Old Davidsonville event is a one-night event, which includes concerts, food trucks, a hayride, and a bonfire. Historical reenactors portray the ghosts of residents who could have lived in Davidsonville and share legends and stories of the old town. At the Black River Rendezvous, presentations of mountain-man and Native American camps and traders are held, as well as demonstrations of frontier-era crafts and trades.

                Like all of Arkansas’ fifty-two state parks, admission to Davidsonville Historic State Park is free, but hours of operation vary throughout the year. For more information, contact the park’s visitors’ center at 870-892-4708 or visit its website at www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/davidsonville-historic-state-park.

                If the early frontier history of Arkansas interests you or you’re simply looking for a beautiful place to spend the day, Davidsonville Historic State Park is certainly a must-see destination here in the Natural State.