The State Line Marker is a historic

boundary marker A boundary marker, border marker, boundary stone, or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in direction of a boundary. There are several other ty ...

on the state line between

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and Oklahoma. It is located down a path a short way north of a parking area on

Talimena Scenic Drive The Talimena Scenic Drive is a National Scenic Byway in Kiamichi Country, southeastern Oklahoma and extreme western Arkansas spanning a stretch of Oklahoma State Highway 1 (SH-1) and Arkansas Highway 88 (AR 88) from Talihina, Oklahoma, to ...

Ouachita National Forest The Ouachita National Forest is a vast congressionally-designated National Forest that lies in the western portion of Arkansas and portions of extreme-eastern Oklahoma, USA. History The Ouachita National Forest is the oldest National Forest in t ...

, about northwest of Mena, Arkansas. The marker was originally an octagonal cast iron pipe, with the legend "48 M" on the north face (signifying its marking of the 48th mile), "1877" on the south side (the year of the marker's erection), "ARK" (for Arkansas) on the east side, and "CHOC" (for Choctaw Territory) on the west side. The pipe was mounted in a stone and mortar base installed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

in 1974. The marker was placed in 1877 following a series of controversial surveys to demarcate the border between Arkansas and what was then

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

. The marker 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 ...

in 1976. This marker was one of the few surviving markers from this survey that is accessible to the public.

References

Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Buildings and structures completed in 1877 Polk County, Arkansas LeFlore County, Oklahoma 1870s in Indian Territory Boundary markers National Register of Historic Places in Polk County, Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Le Flore County, Oklahoma 1877 establishments in Indian Territory 1877 establishments in Arkansas {{Oklahoma-NRHP-stub

See also

References