Jacksonport (Jackson County, AR)

Many people know of Jacksonport State Park and the history behind, but here is deeper history on Jacksonport as a city of Jackson County, AR, and it went from a county seat to the center of Jackson County's historical site and state park. Jacksonport located a few miles from Newport, AR was once the epicenter of Jackson County as a whole and county seat for a short time. It became a militaristic strategic place for both the Confederates and Union commanders who would fight for control of the area. Jacksonport is rich in history and is one of the only towns that has been preserved as a historical district thanks to the Jackson County Historical Society. Jacksonport even in the twenty-first century is still the center of big events for all of Jackson County, and a place that locals go to fish, swim, or learn the history of our area.

Jacksonport has a rich history and was before Newport became the county seat for Jackson County. Jacksonport is has the richest history among Jackson County because of the town existing between the Black and White rivers during a time when navigable waterways were an important part of a town’s economy for transportation of goods between communities and cities. At the very beginning before Jacksonport was recognized as a community, Native Americans had lived and thrived in the area for thousands of years. During this era Jacksonport was located on what was called the Old Southwest Trail resulting in residents to rely on the riverboats to traverse the area. Before the nineteenth century and American frontier settlement, Native Americans and French traders had been utilizing the Jacksonport area for hunting, fur trapping, and trading with each other, and the terrain at this time due to flooding was very wild and sparsely populated.

A year after Jackson County was official made a territory in 1829, Thomas Tunstall came upon the area seeing its potential in 1831 while driving his steamboat when he was stalled due to the low water content for a few days between the Black and White rivers. Tunstall would return in 1832 purchasing a mill and the surrounding property at Jacks Creek. Even though Tunstall settled in Newark, never having official residents is Jacksonport he has been accredited for the town’s founder because he opened a store and plat the first in region of Jacksonport in 1833. Thanks to Tunstall Jacksonport would become the commercial hub in the area, creating steamers from Memphis, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; St. Louis, Missouri, offloading merchandise to be transported out of Jacksonport by road or smaller craft for markets.

In 1853 Jacksonport was formally made the Jackson County seat with an estimated population between 800 to 1,200 though a population of less than a 1,000 is probably more accurate. Business was typically built along Jefferson Street which was parallel to the riverfront following a similar route as the levee and the road that currently runs through Jacksonport today. Flooding was common during this era and still is today with heavy rainfall but during the 1800s the town would establish wood planks as the sidewalks to compensate for the sodden and muddy ground. When Arkansas seceded from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War all commercial trade was halted in Jacksonport. During the Civil War Jacksonport became a militaristic area for both the Union and Confederate military forces in transporting supplies. Several battles occurred in this area beginning on June 3, 1862, June 12, 1862, November 21, 1863, April 20, 1864, and April 24, 1864. General M. Jeff Thompson and 6,000 Confederate soldiers under his command would surrender at Jacksonport on June 5, 1865.

In the early 1850s building railroads through Arkansas became an important part of the future economy. The Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company began construction in 1853 to have a railroad run across Arkansas following a similar path as the Old Southwest Trail. The project was hit with financial and political difficulties that slowed construction of the railroad until the Civil War broke out and put a full halt to the whole project. Iron Mountain, St. Louis and Southern Railroad would resume construction on the railroad following the end of the war. When the railroad company offered Jacksonport $25,000 bonus and a land grant and officials voted against it, the railroad company in 1872 would move the tracks three miles into a river landing called Newport which helped the community formally incorporated in 1875. Residents from Jacksonport would begin to filter in Newport for better opportunities declining the population of Jacksonport by 1880. Two years later in February 1882, a catastrophic flood and fire consumed most of Jacksonport both happening within a week of each other, further hastened the depopulation of the area. Political strife began to arise in moving the county government in Newport in the 1880s when Jacksonport was surpassed in population. Newport would officially take the county seat in 1891 when it won the third election after Jacksonport had won the first two.

The population of Jacksonport by 1900 had dwindled down to 265, schools located in the area were consolidated with Newport in 1944, and besides the levee built in 1909, there were few improvements to the structures in the area, expect for the old courthouse, when it was saved in 1962 by the Jackson County Historical Society purchased the derelict building and adjacent lands making, renovating it to its former glory became in 1965 the Jacksonport State Park. The old courthouse in the twenty-first century serves as a museum with local Jackson County history, a restored courtroom replicated to appear as it did in the 1870s as the county government seat. On March 1, 1997, a killer tornado would cross through Jackson County killing three people one person being from the Jacksonport district. In the twenty-first century Jacksonport still plays an important role in Jackson County as its historical revenue of the state park, small businesses, few churches that exist, and the local major event that happens towards summertime called Portfest or the ‘Rollin’ on the River’ Festival that draws thousands of visitors from all over. It has recently built a new visitors' center near the old courthouse in Jacksonport to preserve more of the county's history.

Miller, Adam. Jacksonport (Jackson County), Encyclopedia of Arkansas. April 18th, 2023. Accessed April 29th, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/jacksonport-jackson-county-2804/.

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System. Gibson's Factory, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/gibsons-factory-18146/.

Arkansas State Archives. Jackson County Courthouse, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/jacksonport-courthouse-6123/.

Arkansas State Archives. Jackson Guards Memorial, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/jackson-guards-memorial-19293/.

Arkansas State Archives. Jacksonport State Park, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/jacksonport-state-park-entrance-sign-6564/.

Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. Jacksonport State Park, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/jacksonport-state-park-9426/.

Epperson, Delana. Jacksonport State Park Museum, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/jacksonport-state-park-museum-12310/.

Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism. Jacksonport Visitors Center, Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Accessed May 1st, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/jacksonport-visitors-center-18261/.