Webbers Falls - "really a beautiful fall"

Narcissa Chisholm Owen remembered her mother’s descriptions of how Webbers Falls appeared before the terrific floods in 1833 changed the landscape forever:

Mother told me that when she moved from lower Arkansas to the present country, at Webbers Falls, about 1828, there was really a beautiful fall, nearly or quite across the whole of the Arkansas River, about three or four feet in height.

Historic map of the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls. Added to the map is text that identifies the river's characteristics - the Arkansas River, Illinois River, falls, shoals as well as the old bridge and current bridge.

Lay of the Land

Today’s Webbers Falls looks quite different from the land that early Cherokee settlers found upon arrival. By the time of the Trail of Tears, Cherokee government and commercial centers already existed. This location was a natural choice— the town sits near the confluence of the Arkansas and Illinois rivers and the nearby falls prevented travel upriver during frequent periods of low water.

Cultural Geography

Indian Territory was divided and assigned to tribes forced west during Indian Removal. The Cherokee that originally settled in this area were Old Settlers that moved west on their own. When Cherokee arrived on the Trail of Tears, they proceeded to designated disbandment sites and settlement areas.

The unreliability of navigable rivers, safety concerns, and severe health threats meant that only a minority of Cherokee traveled by river rather than over land. Cherokee on the water route may have traveled on a steamboat or flatboat similar to what is shown here from a later time period.

Steamboat W. C. Huff on the White River, ca. 1900. Source: Rivers, Landings, and Riverboats Photograph Collection, UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture.

Learn more about Steamboats and Their Use for Indian Removal

Proceed to Old Settlers, New Homeland.

Return to Itinerary for Western Arkansas and Oklahoma.