For Immediate Release August 22,2002

State Parks Division
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park to Close
Temporarily Beginning August 26.

Brinkley - Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park will close on Monday, August 26 while construction is underway to replace the park's 950-foot wooden boardwalk with a new walkway, according to State Parks Director Greg Butts. The park will reopen late January 2003. The 36-acre park, a National Historic Landmark, features the headwater swamp in which is located the granite monument marking the initial point of the survey, begun in the fall of 1815, that resulted from the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The boardwalk stretches from high ground to where the monument is located in the swamp's interior.

The park is located southeast of Brinkley at the junction of Lee, Monroe and Phillips counties. It is one of the 51 state parks managed by the State Parks Division, Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

Butts said, "The new boardwalk will replace the current one that was built in the early 1980s. Whereas the current boardwalk is made of wood, the new one will be constructed of a material manufactured from a blend of recycled polyethylene plastics and recycled wood fibers." He noted this makes the wood fibers virtually moisture proof, so this material should be better suited for the boardwalk's location over the wet terrain of the surrounding swamp.

Butts continued, "The new boardwalk, like the current one, will offer barrier-free access for visitors with disabilities. It, too, will feature wayside interpretive exhibits providing information about the Louisiana Purchase, as well as highlighting the natural resources of the swamp."

According to Greg Butts, "Next year will mark the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. This historic event, and the park featuring the Survey's initial point, will be getting much attention throughout 2003 as local and national celebrations are held. The new boardwalk will be a nice feature in light of next year's bicentennial and the attention that will be focused on the Louisiana Purchase."

The new boardwalk will be the third successive walkway at this site. The federally-supported Green Thumb Program constructed the first boardwalk in the late 1960s that originally opened this historic site to the public. Arkansas State Parks constructed the current walkway to the monument in the early 1980s.

The L'Anguille Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed the stone monument at this site in the fall of 1926. The monument is situated where federal land surveyors Prospect K. Robbins and Joseph C. Brown marked gum trees on November 10, 1815. This initial point was the first surveyor mark in the monumental task of surveying the entire Louisiana Territory, the vast territory including the present Arkansas and twelve other states, an area stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The $15 million land purchase from France included a large portion of North America and doubled the size of the young United States.

From the initial point in eastern Arkansas emanated the surveys for Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and part of South Dakota.

The headwater swamp in which the monument is located is representative of the swamplands that were common in eastern Arkansas before the vast bottomlands were drained and cleared for farming and commercial purposes.

The actual development of the state park didn't get underway until 1977 when the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ANHC) recognized the importance of preserving the headwater swamp surrounding the monument. That year, the ANHC added the swamp to its System of Natural Areas, thereby protecting both the natural and historical features within it.

For further information about Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park, contact:
Joan Ellison, public information officer, Arkansas State Parks,
One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201; phone: (501) 682-2873; e-mail: joan.ellison@mail.state.ar.us