Colonel Shelby in Arkansas

Joseph O. Shelby came to Arkansas as a Missouri hemp planter turned cavalryman. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1830, he built a business at Waverly, Missouri, and in the 1850s was a leading member of the Blue Lodge, which worked to make Kansas a slave state. His Iron Brigade rode 1,500 miles through Missouri in 1863. Rather than surrender in 1865, he led about a thousand men into Mexico, where a land grant for a colony collapsed with Maximilian's empire. He returned in 1867, testified at Frank James's trial and served as a U.S. marshal.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Independence Regional Museum — 2.5 mi
  A Batesville museum in a 1936 WPA sandstone National Guard armory, telling the story of the twelve counties that once formed Independence County, with a research wing for local records.
• Jacksonport State Park — 20 mi
  A steamboat port at the confluence of the White and Black rivers whose 1872 Second Empire courthouse, raised two feet to clear the floods, stands as the park museum.
• Greers Ferry Dam and Lake — 25 mi
  The Corps of Engineers dam on the Little Red River that President Kennedy dedicated on October 3, 1963, with a visitor center, a trout hatchery below the dam and a lake of 340 miles of shoreline.

More markers nearby

• Governor Elisha Baxter — 1.8 mi
• Independence County First Court House — 2.4 mi
• Batesville During The Civil War — 2.5 mi
• Arkansas College — 2.5 mi