Drew County Seat

Monticello's courthouse square began as a gift. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says Fountain and Polly Austin donated the land in 1849, and the first courthouse went up on it in 1851, with Monticello incorporated in 1852. A brick "French castle" courthouse was built there in 1871. It was torn down in 1933, and the courthouse moved farther south on Main Street, while the original site became the landscaped center of town that locals call the square. By 1860 Drew County held 3,497 enslaved people and 5,581 white residents.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Japanese American Internment Museum — 23 mi
  A museum in the McGehee train depot on the two Arkansas camps, Rohwer and Jerome, where about 16,000 Japanese Americans were held from 1942 to 1945.

More markers nearby

• Drew County Troops — steps away
• The Orphan Company — 15 mi
• Bradley County Court House — 16 mi
• Early Railroads in Chicot County — 22 mi