Old Southwest Trail

William Lockhart arrived from North Carolina in 1815, when this country was still Missouri Territory, and settled where the Southwest Trail crossed the Saline River. He received rights to a toll bridge in 1831, and the first post office, Saline Crossing, opened that year with Lockhart as postmaster. Benton, established in 1833 and named for Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, became the county seat because it sat centrally on the trail and had the larger population. Saline County itself was formed on November 2, 1835, from the western edge of Pulaski County.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinnacle Mountain State Park — 20 mi
  A day-use state park west of Little Rock around a 1,011-foot Ouachita peak, with a strenuous summit trail, the Arkansas Arboretum and a visitor center above the Arkansas River.
• Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site — 20 mi
  The 1927 high school where nine Black students entered under federal troops on September 25, 1957, with a National Park Service visitor center across the intersection.
• Big Dam Bridge — 21 mi
  A 14-foot-wide walking and cycling bridge built onto Murray Lock and Dam, 90 feet over the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
• Arkansas State Capitol — 21 mi
  The neo-classical Capitol built from 1899 to 1915 on the old penitentiary site with state convict labor, free to enter, with the Little Rock Nine monument on the grounds.

More markers nearby

• The Gann Building — steps away
• Saline County Records — steps away
• Saline County in the Civil War — steps away
• The Benton Courier — 0.2 mi