Note 69 — Chapter XVII · {I}[68]

It is said that Major Long first chose the site of Van Buren for the fort afterwards erected at Bellepoint, five miles higher up the river, and known as Fort Smith—see our volume xiii, p. 197, note 166. The site was not occupied until after the removal of the Cherokee in 1828; the next year it was made a post-office, and in 1838 the seat for Crawford County, Arkansas. For two decades Van Buren was a prosperous frontier town, the home of a large Indian trade. Since the War of Secession it has not regained its prestige.—Ed.