Cadron Settlement Park

Established in 1979, Cadron Settlement Park preserves the site of the first permanent settlement of people of European and later African descent in central Arkansas. Around 30 to 40 families lived here from 1818 to 1831. The park is also the site where Native Americans were encamped on the Trail of Tears, the name given to the forced removal of Native Americans between 1830-1850 from their traditional homelands to Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma). Low water forced a group of 700 Cherokee Indians being transported on the Arkansas River to stop at the settlement. Tragically, a cholera outbreak killed over 100 of the Cherokee, including many children. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It features a replica blockhouse, hiking trails, public facilities, and historical markers and interpretive signs.

In 1818, settler and trader John McElmurray and three investors laid out the settlement, which was about 64 acres in size. They established the settlement during a land boom where prices for half-acre lots were as high as $1,300. Two other settlements downriver, Crystal Hill and Little Rock, were established around the same time as well. The land boom was caused by speculation that the territorial capital and the seat of Pulaski County would be established in the area.

The Cadron settlement appears to have gotten off to a good start. People could reach it from nearby towns on trails and roads and a ferry that crossed the Arkansas River and the nearby Cadron Creek. Mail service began in Cadron in 1820. McElmurray lived in the blockhouse and used it as a tavern and his fur trading business (he traded with Cherokee Indians who were living to the northwest and French traders).

Cadron would never become a successful, established town however. For various political reasons, the territorial legislature voted in favor of Little Rock becoming the county seat and the territorial capital (the adjacent Conway County was established in 1825 and again Cadron missed out). Other factors included the death of McElmurry in 1827 (he was 66) and Indian Removal in Arkansas in 1828, which significantly reduced the fur trade. As a result of these factors, Cadron was finally abandoned in 1831. Other industries and agriculture dominated the region, and the area around Conway was home to hundreds of enslaved persons by that time.

The Faulkner County Historical Society conducted a cemetery census of the site in 1991 and identified dozens of marked unmarked graves. It is likely that there are many more unmarked graves. The plaque commemorating the Cherokee Indians who died here lists many of their names, some of whom adopted Anglo-Saxon names. The park itself was established in 1979. Vandals set fire to the first replica blockhouse in 1992 but another one was rebuilt in 1998. The blockhouse is open to the public on occasion and "living history" events are also held at the site.

"Cadron Blockhouse." Faulkner County Historical Society. Accessed August 13, 2021. https://www.faulknerhistory.org/cadron-block-house.

"Cadron Blockhouse." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed August 13, 2021. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=96645.

Henderson, Linda. "The Siege of Cadron." 501 Life. December 31, 2020. https://501lifemag.com/the-siege-of-cadron.

Peterson, David & Norman, Bill. "Cadron Settlement." Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last Updated November 9, 2018. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/cadron-settlement-1107.

Schnedler, Jack. "Cadron settlement remembered as part of Trail of Tears." November 5, 2021. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/05/cadron-settlement-remembered-as-part-of.