Fitzgerald Station and Farmstead is a collection of historic buildings and structures in

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is the List of cities and towns in Arkansas, fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington County, Arkansas, Washington and Benton County, Arkansas, Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on th ...

associated with the Butterfield Overland Mail Trail. Historically the site of a tavern popular with travelers heading west prior to the establishment of the Butterfield Trail, the property became a station along the route in the 1850s. Today, the property retains an original 1850s barn built as a waypoint along the route, as well as an 1870s house and associated outbuildings. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in May 2003.

Eponym and early history

John Fitzgerald Sr. and his wife, Mary, relocated to

Washington County, Arkansas Washington County is a regional economic, educational, and cultural hub in the Northwest Arkansas region. Created as Arkansas's 17th county on November 30, 1848, Washington County has 13 incorporated municipalities, including Fayetteville, Arka ...

from

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

circa 1830. In 1834, the Fitzgerald's son, James, was the only property owner listed in a government survey of the area. As part of the land received according to the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty of 1830, the property of the station and farmstead was officially signed to Fitzgerald in September 1846 by President

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

. An inn and tavern were established and maintained on the site, and it became popular along the route. The site witnessed 8,000

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

travelling along the Northern Route during 1838-39 as part of the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

. Fitzgerald was mentioned in the journals of both B.B. Cannon and Dr. William Isaac Irvins Morrow, two members of a military escort taking a small group of Cherokee who were willingly relocating per the Treaty of New Echota.

Butterfield Trail

The

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

route was a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

route chosen to be snow-free unlike the more northern but shorter routes in place at the time. It ran from

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

beginning in 1858. This segment overlapped a historic road known as the "State Road" in Arkansas, itself a formerly well-traveled Native American removal route from

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

to Fayetteville in the 1830s. Fitzgerald Station served along the route between Mudtown, Cross Hollows, and Callahan's Tavern to the north and Fayetteville to the south. Fitzgerald Station likely benefited from its reputation among travelers prior to the establishment of the Butterfield Trail.

Present day

Today, the road running in front of Fitzgerald Station is called

Old Wire Road The Old Wire Road is a historic road in Missouri and Arkansas. Several local roads are still known by this name. It followed an old Native American route, the Great Osage Trail across the Ozarks and became a road along a telegraph line from St. L ...

, paying homage to the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

lines that eventually supplanted the horse-powered mail delivery of the Butterfield Trail. Highway 265 runs along Old Wire Road near the property, and roughly follows the original stage route of the 1850s. The trail has been recognized as a segment of the Butterfield Trail and the Trail of Tears (Northern Route) within the Arkansas Heritage Trails Network, as well as the

within the

National Historic Trail The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...

System. The

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and Arkansas Archaeological Survey conducted a remote sensing survey using magnetic gradiometry and electric resistivity in an attempt to locate the historic tavern, log cabin house, or original wagon path through the property. The group believed that the log cabin and tavern were located where the 1870s house was constructed, and the results were inconclusive for the original location of the aforementioned. An excavation commenced in February 2005, in which it was determined that the soil cut to form the house's basement was spread throughout the site. A

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

strata was encountered, as well as several fragments of broken whiteware, consistent with a tavern.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Arkansas Greek Revival houses in Arkansas Houses completed in 1857 Buildings and structures in Springdale, Arkansas Butterfield Overland Mail in Arkansas Houses in Washington County, Arkansas Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Stagecoach stations on the National Register of Historic Places Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas 1857 establishments in Arkansas Trail of Tears Transportation in Washington County, Arkansas

Eponym and early history

Butterfield Trail

Present day

See also

References