CONWAY, Ark. (AP) - In a sublime setting along the Arkansas River sits the Cadron Blockhouse, a structure that is steeped in history. Only a few miles from the outskirts of Conway, the blockhouse is a replica of an edifice that was built in the late 18th century. Its authenticity is based on many references to it in old French and Spanish documents.
There is no gain in saying that the history of the place owns a sorry reputation that is linked to the infamous Trail of Tears when thousands of American Indians were summarily ejected from their homes in the east and moved to the vast territory in the southwest, the Log Cabin Democrat (https://bit.ly/1NcMZh3 ) reported.
The blockhouse that stands today was raised from the ashes of a disastrous fire in 1992. It was a replica of the building constructed in 1978. The original was dated in the 1700s.
Many Indians died and were buried along the route in the vicinity of the Cadron Blockhouse during the Trail of Tears.
The blockhouse of yore was a multiple use structure. It was used as a trading post, a residence and a public meeting place - plus for defense purposes.
When French trappers and other early settlers were in the area, the Osage Indians occupied the land north of the Arkansas River. When the Osage were on the warpath, the settlers used the blockhouse as a place of refuge.
When the blockhouse reconstruction was begun, archeologists uncovered what appeared to be a stone foundation. They also found color stains in the soil that indicated what could have been a foundation log. Numerous artifacts were found at the blockhouse site, including trade beads, metal buttons, gun flints, musket lock, shot, square cut nails, tableware and fragments of china.
The blockhouse is made of Arkansas cypress. The logs are rough sawed 6”x 12”, some measuring 24 feet in length. The overhead beams, which serve as the floor joists for the second floor, are 22 feet long. The corner notching is a half dovetail or weather notch which is designed in such a manner to “shed” water.
The first floor measures 18’ x 36’. The second floor is 22’ x 40’, which provides a two foot overhand around the building. This feature provided the defender with an advantage to fire down on an attacking enemy.
The roof has a 45 degree pitch which was very common during the period. It is made of 24” split cedar shakes. There are four fireplaces, two on each floor.
The hardware for the doors and shutters and also fireplace cranes were handmade from an early pattern. The chimney stones were obtained from numerous old home sites in this area.
Cadron Settlement Park’s link with history is immutable. Many Indians are buried in the park in the shadow of the blockhouse.
The concept of moving southern Indians westward was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson in the early 1800s, but it was not until 1830 that Congress, with the support of President Andrew Jackson, passed the Indian Removal Act.
Many in the United States are not proud of the way earlier incarnations of its government treated the Indians. The irony of the episodes, it is said, is that some of the more enlightened politicians of the time proposed and carried out programs of systematic cruelty and injustice, such as the forced removal of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians from their ancestral home east of the Mississippi River to vast open spaces in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase.
Beginning in about 1819, the government increased efforts to plod the Indians into Oklahoma.
In 1824 the army prepared the way by building Fort Towson and Fort Gibson, and in a period of about 10 years the government moved about 70,000 Indians across the Mississippi into the wide open spaces of the Indian Territory.
The rigors of the journey accounted for untold numbers of deaths among the Indians.
Men, women and children perished on those fateful evacuations. During their travels across the lands from the Smoky Mountains to the west, simple shallow graves mark the long, sorry trail.
History records the removal in 1838 as a shameful chapter in the deeds of mankind. It has been recorded as one of the most deplorable and lamentable acts in history.
Cadron Settlement Park’s place in the Trail of Tears is well-established. Markers near the blockhouse are dedicated to the Cherokee Indians who died there.
“It was here that many of our youngsters and families passed away,” John Catcher, deputy chief of the Cherokee Nations said at the dedication of the Cadron memorials marking the burial grounds near the Cadron Blockhouse. “It is here that the body of the Cherokee is forever mixed with the soil of Arkansas. But we must be ever mindful that this not happen again to any group of people no matter where they come from.”
The blockhouse was rebuilt after the 1992 fire by the Faulkner County Historical Society, public donations, free labor from the Conway Municipal Court and a dedicated group of county residents whose time and money was freely given.
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Information from: Log Cabin Democrat, https://www.thecabin.net
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