Benton County First Court House

Benton County's first courts did not have a building. The 1837 term met in the home of county judge George P. Wallace, and a log courthouse on the Bentonville square was in use by May 1838. A brick courthouse begun in 1841 did not last the war. One account blames Union troops in 1862; the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says forces of both sides, and outlaws, burned the courthouse and most of the town, leaving about a dozen houses. An 1874 courthouse followed, and the present one, designed by A. O. Clarke, came later.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Walmart Museum — steps away
  Sam Walton's 1950 variety store on the Bentonville square, now a free museum with his 1979 pickup, a recreated office, the 1945 Newport store door and a 1950s-style soda counter.
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art — 0.7 mi
  A 2011 Moshe Safdie building on 120 acres of Ozark forest in Bentonville, with free admission, six trails, two ponds, a spring, an arboretum and a relocated Frank Lloyd Wright house.
• Pea Ridge National Military Park — 11 mi
  Where Union troops held the March 1862 Civil War battle that kept Missouri in the Union, with Elkhorn Tavern, a Cherokee Trail of Tears road and a signed tour route.
• Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area — 16 mi
  Arkansas's largest state park, about 12,000 acres on Beaver Lake, with the Van Winkle mill site, a graveyard of enslaved people, 54 miles of trail and regulated hunting.

More markers nearby

• Camp Halleck at Osage Springs — 4.3 mi
• Cross Hollows — 8.2 mi
• Rev. James Ingram — 11 mi
• Elm Springs in the Civil War — 12 mi