Early Commerce on the Ouachita River
Rivers carried goods and people from place to place long before the days of planes, trains, and automobiles. The steamboat played a significant role in the growth and expansion of the United States in the 1800s when the craft revolutionized river travel and trade. The new, more powerful boats capable of navigating the country’s smaller rivers like the Ouachita linked those living along or near streams to the rest of the world as never before.
American Indians used canoes on the Ouachita River for years. After the arrival of Europeans in the area, French hunters and trappers also frequently utilized the river for transportation. Then, thousands of nineteenth-century Arkansas settlers followed rivers seeking land and a new home.
Among the newcomers, Clark County pioneer Jacob Barkman initially utilized canoes and pirogues for transporting goods on the Ouachita River. One of his vessels was said to be a dugout made from two large hollowed-out tree trunks fastened together and propelled with oars. Even before 1815, Barkman carried loads of cotton, pelts, and other items downriver, returning with household supplies and other goods to sell.
Another pioneer, Abner Hignight, also utilized the river to enhance the area’s progress. Notably, he traveled downstream to New Orleans and returned with the area’s first seed corn, a big advancement in agriculture for the region.
Also reaping the benefits of river travel was John Hemphill, who settled just east of the Oua-chita across the river from what is now Arkadelphia in 1811 and engaged in the manufacture of salt. Hemphill first arrived in the area in a pirogue and used that method of travel to go down the river about twice a year to obtain sugar, coffee, and other supplies in New Orleans. Significantly, among Hemphill’s purchases were a number of salt kettles, several of which survive today.
Daniel Morrison, best known for his ownership of Watermelon/ Morrison Island in Hot Spring County, was another early settler known to have shipped cotton on the Ouachita in the territorial period. Prior to moving to Hot Spring County, Morrison lived in what was called “the Richwoods” in Clark County, and in 1835 raised sixteen bales of cotton that he carried to Camden in two small wooden vessels.
Canoes, pirogues, small flatboats, and small keelboats traveled the Ouachita for commercial purposes from the beginning of American settlement. Such small, basic craft became the most common form of river transport until the mid-nineteenth century when the quicker and more powerful steamboat gained popularity.
The introduction of steam-powered boats revolutionized river travel and trade. The new-fangled vessels could move at an astonishing speed of five miles per hour! The nation’s rivers—including the Ouachita—began to carry steamboats, and goods and people flowed all across the new nation on them. The keelboats/flatboats previously in use were largely superseded by the new vessels.
In Arkansas, the Comet reached Arkansas Post on the Mississippi in 1820, and in 1822, the Eagle became the first steamboat to journey up the Arkansas River to Little Rock. Then, in 1823, a steamer reached the small village of Ecore Fabre (later Camden) on the Ouachita. Later, steamboats made their way to Arkadelphia as well, beginning a new means of commercial trade. In subsequent years, dozens of steamboats arrived at landings along the upper Ouachita.
While the river’s role in the economy prior to the arrival of the railroad is a relatively little-known part of the area’s history, the story of commerce on the Ouachita is actually quite fascinating. In fact, the Clark County Historical Association has published a new book on the topic, “Steamboats: Navigation on the Upper Ouachita River,” by Bob Thompson and Wendy Richter. Written for a general audience, the image-rich 84-page volume will be available for the first time at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 2, at the historic Hollywood Methodist Church. The public is invited to attend to hear a brief overview of the book’s content and see illustrations from the work presented by the authors. Thompson and Richter will be available to sign the first copies of the new publication, which can be purchased after the program. The book can also be obtained via the CCHA’S website, www. clarkcountyarhistory.org