Southwest Trail

Follow the Southwest Trail on one of Arkansas' best American history tours through some of the most popular historical vacation spots in the state. The Southwest Trail is a general term for the network of routes connecting the St. Louis/St. Genevieve are of Missouri and the Red River Valley of Texas. In Arkansas, what had been little more than a footpath before Arkansas became a territory in 1819 became a major emigration route in the 1820s. More than four-fifths of Arkansas' population by the 1830s had entered the territory along the Southwest Trail. The road was improved by the U.S. Army during Andrew Jackson’s presidency. The section north of the Arkansas River saw its use decline during the late nineteenth century, but the route south of there was still in use for decades afterward.