Old Military Road

The Benge detachment of the Cherokee removal is the documented traveler on this road. Led by John Benge, more than 1,100 people from Wills Valley in Alabama, with the enslaved Black people some Cherokee families held, followed the old military road west through Baxter and Marion counties and crossed the White River above Cotter around Christmas 1838. Benge reported 33 deaths on the whole journey, though estimates for the route run as high as 242. The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail added the Benge route in 2009. The Osage hunted this country before an 1808 treaty.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jacob Wolf House — 5.9 mi
  Arkansas's oldest public structure, a two-story dogtrot log house at the Norfork confluence that served as the Izard County courthouse in 1829 and later as a family home.
• Bull Shoals-White River State Park — 15 mi
  A state park below Bull Shoals Dam, where a visitor center overlooks the dam and lake and the White River below is a nationally known trout stream.
• Calico Rock Historic District — 16 mi
  A one-block railroad-era Main Street climbing a hillside above the White River, rebuilt in brick and stone after the 1923 fire, with a hotel of homemade cement blocks.
• Rush Historic District — 17 mi
  The zinc-mining camp on Rush Creek that boomed from the 1880s, emptied after 1919 and now stands inside Buffalo National River as a ghost town.

More markers nearby

• Skirmishes near Mountain Home — 4.5 mi
• Bushwhackers — 16 mi
• Military Activity at Calico Rock — 16 mi
• Troops Raised in Marion County — 20 mi