Scott County ArArchives History - Books .....The First Whites, Chapter 2 1922
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 August 29, 2009, 8:55 pm

Book Title: History Of Scott County

CHAPTER II.
The First Whites

  Although the New World was discovered in 1492, no exploration of the interior
of North America was attempted until fifty years later. In 1539 Hernando De
Soto, accompanied by six hundred nobles and warriors, landed in Tampa Bay, Fla.,
determined to find the fabled Eldorado. They marched northwest through the
states of Alabama and Mississippi, lighting the Indians and exploring the
country along the march, and at length reached the Mississippi River at a point
in the vicinity of where Memphis now stands. They crossed the river in 1541 into
the present state of Arkansas. Continuing in a northwesterly course, they
finally crossed the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas into the plains of
southeast Kansas. Here De Soto turned back and determined to find the hot
springs of which the Indians had told him. So, starting a southeasterly course
he reached the Arkansas River at or near the place where Ft. Smith now stands.
It was then getting late in the fall and winter and he decided to camp for the
winter. Therefore, moving southeast about thirty or thirty-five miles, he built
an encampment and spent the winter of 1541-42.

  This camp must have been somewhere in the north part of Scott County, most
likely in the vicinity of the present post offices of Lucas and Ione in 
Logan county. The account of this expedition speaks of numerous Indians living
close by his camp; and the mounds and burial ground situated in close proximity
to this supposed site of De Soto's camp seem to evidence it as the location of
his winter quarters. Also, on the old Bagwell farm near Lucas, it is said that
about fifty years ago there were found some old Spanish coins of an early
sixteenth century mintage, which are supposed to have been left by De Soto's
expedition.

  During the winter, De Soto lost several men and more horses and his conquering
host became a dispirited band by the time spring opened up and they were ready
for the resumption of their journey to the hot springs. Added to these troubles,
his interpreter died, thus rendering communication with the natives difficult if
not altogether impossible. The southward journey was resumed in the spring and
led through the Petit Jean Pass in the Poteau mountains, probably along the
course of the present Ft. Smith and Waldron road. The journalist of the
expedition speaks of the abundance of game and of dense thickets, which were no
doubt located in the Fourche valley territory. The expedition passed near the
site of the village of Greenridge, then to the Cedar Creek Pass in the south
part of the country, striking the Ouachita River near where the town of Mt. Ida,
in Montgomery County, now stands. From this point the expedition proceeded along
the river to the hot springs.

  Thus the members of De Soto's party were the first white people to visit the
present limits of Scott County. All along the route of the expedition, wide
detours were made into the surrounding country and careful search prosecuted for
the precious metals. They probably explored the greater part of the central and
eastern portions of the county. The country seems to have been fairly thickly
settled by the Indians, who appear to have been comparatively prosperous. The
expedition had no trouble in subsisting on the country, for they took from the
natives food and skins sufficient for their purposes.

  Thus sixty-six years before the English settled Jamestown, Scott County had
been visited and explored by the whites, although it was destined to wait nearly
three hundred years longer for permanent settlers.


Additional Comments:

HISTORY of Scott County Arkansas
By Henry Grady McCutchen

Printed in Arkansas
U. S. A.

Copyright, 1922, by H. G. McCutchen


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