Civil War in Newton County

The Confederate guerrilla leader named here, John Cecil, was Newton County's first elected sheriff, serving 1846 to 1850 and again 1856 to 1858, and a farmer with considerable land. In 1862 he led one of the independent guerrilla units General Hindman authorized. His brother James served in the Union army and his youngest brother, Samuel, in a Union company under Captain John Bailey, and the brothers on opposite sides met in skirmishes at Whitley's Mill and Limestone Creek. Cecil was never captured or prosecuted, but his home burned and he left the county for Eureka Springs.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Boxley Valley Historic District — 10.0 mi
  A seven-mile farm valley of log houses, a grist mill and a 1980s elk herd inside Buffalo National River, still lived in and still grazed by cattle.
• Lost Valley Trail — 11 mi
  A box-canyon walk past a natural bridge, a 2,000-year-old bluff shelter and a 53-foot waterfall, the most popular hike in Buffalo National River.
• Whitaker Point (Hawksbill Crag) — 17 mi
  The one designated trail in the Upper Buffalo Wilderness leads to Hawksbill Crag, a bluff over the river's headwaters in a valley no one has lived in since 1948.
• Buffalo National River at Tyler Bend — 24 mi
  The country's first national river, kept free-flowing after a dam fight that ended in 1965, seen from the Middle District's visitor center, the Collier Homestead and the Riverview Trail.

More markers nearby

• Newton County Seat — steps away
• Caravan Spring — 12 mi
• Boone County Men Served Both Armies — 16 mi
• Military Activity in Boone County — 16 mi