Courthouse

The courthouse stands on land John Drennen gave in 1839, when he donated Block 14 for a courthouse and jail, and the original part of the building dates to 1842. Visitors are told it is believed to be the oldest active county courthouse west of the Mississippi, and it still has its original Seth Thomas tower clock. When Union troops took Van Buren in late December 1862, the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says they destroyed courthouse records along with a printing press, steamboats and a cotton factory. Union occupation then lasted about two years.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Van Buren Historic District — 0.3 mi
  Eight blocks of Main Street on the Arkansas River, from Phillips Landing, with 1889 banks, a beer depot and a railroad depot, on the National Register since 1976.
• U.S. Marshals Museum — 4.7 mi
  A star-shaped museum on the Arkansas riverbank, opened in 2023, telling the story of the nation's oldest federal law enforcement agency and the marshals who worked out of Fort Smith.
• Fort Smith National Historic Site — 5.3 mi
  Two army forts, a federal courthouse and a basement jail on the bluff where the Poteau meets the Arkansas, from the 1817 riflemen to Judge Parker's court and its gallows.
• Fort Smith National Cemetery — 5.3 mi
  The post burial ground of the first Fort Smith, kept since 1819, holding its first commander, more than 400 Confederate dead, Judge Parker and veterans of every war since.

More markers nearby

• Albert Pike School House — steps away
• Van Buren Raid — 0.3 mi
• Sebastian County California Gold Seekers — 5.2 mi
• Sebastian County Seat of Justice — 5.2 mi