Preview of Travel Guide The Arkansas Delta Byways Travel Guide

Louisiana Purchase State Park

This National Historic Landmark site, located at the junction of Lee, Monroe and Phillips counties preserves the initial point from which all surveys of the property acquired through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 initiated. That year, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the vast territory of Louisiana from France for $15 million. Twelve years later, President James Madison ordered an official survey of the purchase area, a survey that began in what is now Arkansas and led to the settlement of the American West. The initial point was the first surveyor mark in the monumental task of surveying the entire Louisiana Territory, including the present Arkansas and 12 other states. An elevated boardwalk leads into the swamp where a granite monument marking the initial point is located. Along the way are interpretive wayside exhibits that tell about the Louisiana Purchase and describe the flora and fauna of the swamp. This headwater swamp is representative of the swamplands that were common in eastern Arkansas before the vast bottomlands were drained and cleared for farming and commercial purposes.

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Entrance from S. H. 362 off U. S. 49 near the Blackton community., Brinkley, Arkansas
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