Miller Courthouse

Miller County was big and short-lived. Created on April 1, 1820, from Hempstead County, it took in parts of present Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and its 1820 census counted 999 residents, 82 of them enslaved. A Choctaw treaty of January 20, 1825, set the nation's line at one hundred paces east of Fort Smith, running due south to the Red River, and settlers' petitions failed to move it. On November 5, 1828, the residents who remained burned the courthouse and the county records themselves. The post office moved south of the river in 1832 and closed in 1838.

What the plaque says

Miller Courthouse To the southwest near Red River stood Miller Courthouse, county seat of old Miller County, Arkansas Territory, 1820-1828. First post office established there Sept. 7, 1824, J. H. Fowler, postmaster. Claiborne Wright, prominent settlement leader, served as sheriff and member Territorial Council. His "place" was site of first court held in old Miller Co.; courthouse was later built nearby. County abolished Oct. 1828, after land ceded to Choctaw Nation. White settlers removed to make way for Choctaws upon removal from Mississippi. Courthouse and post office burned Nov. 1828. Oklahoma Historical Society 204-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beavers Bend State Park — 19 mi
  Pine and hardwood Ouachita hills where the Mountain Fork leaves Broken Bow Lake, a 1930s CCC park named for a Choctaw citizen, with trout water, a 26-mile ridge trail and the Forest Heritage Center.
• Fort Towson Historic Site — 26 mi
  The 1824 Red River post where arriving Choctaw and Chickasaw families were dispersed after removal, beside the site of Doaksville, the Choctaw capital where Stand Watie surrendered in 1865.

More markers nearby

• Shawneetown — steps away
• Military Road — 11 mi
• Wheelock Mission — 11 mi
• Elliott Academy — 19 mi