Arkansas Post May be Expanded to Include Menard Mound

              Grand Prairie Historical Society BULLETIN
OCTOBER 1993
2
ARKANSAS POST MEMORIAL MAY BE
EXPANDED TO INCLUDE MENARD MOUND
Menard Mound in 1882 (after drawing by H.J. Lewis). At this time its location was
stated to be 1/4 mile in direct line from the Arkansas River to Poynter's Post Office
and ferry and 7 miles west, by land, of Arkansas Post, on the farm of Napoleon
Menard.
Strong local and state support for expansion of Arkansas Post
National Memorial to include famed Menard Mound was voiced during a
public hearing on the subject at the Visitor Center on June 10,
1993.
Principal speakers, introduced by Supt. Clark Dixon, were Joan
Mitchell, a senior project coordinator for the National Park
Service's Southwest Region, based at Santa Fe, NM, and Dr. John H.
House, survey archaeologist for the Arkansas Archaeological Survey
at University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff.
Ms. Mitchell indicated the Menard-Hodges site meets NPS
criteria of suitability, availability and accessibility for an
extension to the Memorial seven miles distant "as the crow
flies", but thirty miles by road.
She noted that availability resulted from the gift of the
area by the Hodges family to the Archaeological Conservancy,
which is holding it in trust until a decision is reached on the
mound's future. She and House also credited the Wallace family
of Gillett, owner of property surrounding the site, with
affording protection from depredation by curio hunters.
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Dr. House described the Menard-Hodges mound area as "one
of the most important [archaeological] sites in the United
States, although not well-known even locally".
An increasing body of archaeological and documentary
evidence testifies that the 1686 original Arkansas Post of
Henri de Tonti was at the mound when the Arkansas river flowed
near its base.
During a slide presentation Dr. House cited in particular
the memoir of Henri Joutel, one of the survivors of LaSalle's
ill-fated colonization bid which had missed the mouth of the
Mississippi river and wound up on what became the Texas
seacoast. In 1687 Joutel was among those who set out with
LaSalle from his Texas base to find their way to de Tonti's fur
trading post of Fort St. Louis on the Illinois river.
Although LaSalle was killed by members of his own expedition,
late In July Joutel and six other survivors reached the south bank
of the Arkansas river where they found de Tonti's Arkansas Post.
When Joutel returned to France, he wrote an account of his
experiences. His description of the Arkansas Post is the key to the
argument that the Menard-Hodges site is the Quapaw village of
Osotouy.
The description of "a little hill where the river does not
flood" in another account is "an-essential clue" to location of
the [de Tonti] Post near Menard Mound, declared the archeaeologist.
Adding importance to Menard Mound as an Indian cultural
center was its "unusually large" plaza, designed for ceremonial
purposes and comprising some two acres, Dr. House stressed.
1941 Photograph of Menard-Hodges Mound site by Phillip Phillips, Lower Missis
sippi Survey, Harvard University.
Grand Prairie Historical Society BULLETIN
OCTOBER 1993
Among the slides of the location as mapped by investigators
were those from the Palmer dig for the Smithsonian in 1882-83 with
sketches by talented black artist, H. J. Lewis of Pine Bluff, who
subsequently was an eastern newspaper editorial cartoonist.
Of especial interest to several descendants of that pioneer
French family in the audience was the slide of the mound depicting
the Menard residence in the background.
Other slides included photos of colonial glass, trade beads,
and a Mississippian style pot with an animal head enclosing rattles,
apparently all removed from the Menard-Hodges area during various
digs. One pot related to southern Mississippi and northeastern
Louisiana artifacts dated to the 1500s.
Dr. House said that Arkansas archaeologists are "very
interested" in seeing that the Menard-Hodges Mound area is
turned over to the National Park Service as an adjunct to the
Memorial.
During a question and answer period, it was stated that
Senator Dale Bumpers is "most interested" in the transfer and
only awaiting the NPS recommendation, if favorable, to introduce
legislation for that purpose. Mitchell said, "It is up to the
Arkansas congressional delegation as to what happens in the
future."
A longtime Gillett leader in matters affecting the Post
and member of the Grand Prairie Historical Society since its
1953 organization, Ernis Gregory, said chances now would be good
for solving the road distance problem from Post to Mound. He
cited the fact that DeWitt attorney Claude Jenkins heads a
commission dealing with routing the Great River Road through
the Delta.
Retired Post Superintendent D. L. Huggins queried Mitchell
on the renewed interest of the National Park Service in the
merger and was told that such projects were not given high
priority during the Reagan-Bush years.
State archaeologist Eric Peterson wondered if the Memorial
is not located in the wrong place and if the Menard site might
not, years from now, take precedence and be more completely
developed. Others in the audience of some two dozen expressed
doubt that would come to pass, given the present significant
role of Arkansas Post in state history, the Civil War and other
tradition.
As to the feeling of Quapaw descendants, Mitchell said NPS
has an Office of Indian Affairs which would be consulting with
tribal leaders later in the summer.
Garner Allen
The proposed union of two of Arkansas' primary historical
sites, Arkansas Post and Menard-Hodges Mound, was already simmering
on the back burner more than fifty years ago. What follows appeared
in the DeWitt Era-Enterprise of Thursday, 29 February 1940.
Grand Prairie Historical Society BULLETIN
OCTOBER 1993
5
OLD MENARD MOUND MAY UNFOLD INTERESTING ARKANSAS HISTORY
"Old Menard Mound, long one of Arkansas county's prized
historical sights, is taking a high-light in present history. Dr.
T. L. Hodges of near Hot Springs has bought the Menard Mound and
the Cox farm on Little Prairie on which the mound is situated, and
he, in company with Dr. Phillip Phillips of Harvard University
have been in this section of the state the past week on an
inspection of Indian mounds.
"They have given special attention to the Menard Mound, which
lias long been considered the largest and most important of this
section. Dr. Phillips and Dr. Hodges are students of Indian
archaeology and are making a special study of Menard Mound..."
CORE COMMENTS: The National Park Service report at this June,
1993 hearing brought out: "In 1940 the site was acquired by Dr. and
Mrs. T. L. Hodges in order to preserve its historic and
archaeological integrity. Since then, part of the property has been
farmed, but the remainder has been covered with heavy vegetation,
and this is the condition of the site today. There has been little
further disturbance of the site by relic hunters in the past 40
years, during which the NPS and the American Museum of Natural
History sponsored excavations that located deep and well preserved
cultural deposits. The 35 acre site has recently been acquired from
the Hodges by the Archaeological Conservancy, a private non-profit
group dedicated to preserving significant archeological resources."
At the public hearing concerning the expansion of Arkansas Post National
Memorial to include Menard Mound (1 to r) Dr. John H. House, Arkansas Ar-chaelogical
Survey, UAPB; Eric Peterson, State Archaeologist; Joan Mitchell, South-west
Region, National Park Service; Clark A. Dixon, Jr., Superintendent, Arkansas
Post National Memorial.
Grand Prairie Historical Society BULLETIN
OCTOBER 1993
6
Recognized in the audience (front row to back) #1 Jennie Allen, Eric Peterson; #2
Danny Slater, D.L. Huggins, J im Best, Buzzy and Barbara Menard, Boots (Ernis)
Gregory; #3 Lillie Fuhrman, two unidentified, Elizabeth Gaines.
Members of Quapaw Indain Tribe of Miami, Oklahoma at Mound site in November
1992 as participants in the Arkansas Post National Memorial's American Heritage
Month celebration which coincided with Columbus Quincentennial activities. Tra-ditional
dancers, smoke ceremony and folk tales were filmed to be used in a video
production.