Independence County First Court House

Independence County was created on October 20, 1820, from Lawrence County, and in its first form it covered all or part of fifteen of today's Arkansas counties. Its seat took the name Batesville in 1821, for James Woodson Bates, the territorial delegate who was instrumental in creating Arkansas Territory. The site had been called Poke Bayou, where John Reed was living by 1812. The White River became the county's western boundary in 1820, and Cleburne County's creation in 1883 finally gave Independence its modern shape.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Independence Regional Museum — 0.5 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 — 21 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 — 26 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

• Arkansas College — 0.4 mi
• Batesville During The Civil War — 0.5 mi
• Governor Elisha Baxter — 1.1 mi
• Colonel Shelby in Arkansas — 2.4 mi