Side 1:
At the edge of Arrow Rock State Park stands this pioneer town as a memorial to the Boon's Lick Country and the expanding frontier. In the 24-acre park are Arrow Rock Tavern, built by Joseph Huston, ca. 1834, for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, restored and operated as a museum and inn by the State Society of D. A. R. and the State of Missouri; Arrow Rock Academy museum, a former girls' school, chartered, 1843; a "one-man" jail; the state-restored George C. Bingham House; and other sites.
Southwest of town are Sappington and Arrow Rock cemeteries; Sappington and Marmaduke houses; Nathaniel B. Tucker home, "Ardmore"; site of Thomas A. Smith's prairie farm, "Experiment." Some 12 miles southeast is grave of fur trader William H. Ashley, Missouri's first lieutenant governor. Across the river is Boon's Lick, where Daniel Boone's sons boiled salt probably as early as 1807.
Near town lived Dr. John Sappington, noted for his "Anti-Fever (quinine) Pills," author first medical book west of Mississippi, founder of Sappington School Fund; and Governors M. M. and John S. Marmaduke, and C. F. Jackson.
Side 2:
This ancient site was noted by explorers and travelers. The Frenchman D'anville marked Pierre à Fleche (Fr. Arrow Rock) on his map of the Missouri River, 1755; the Lewis and Clark Expedition noted the site, 1804; and S. H. Long of the Yellowstone Expedition, 1819, said that it got its name from the Indians' using the outcropping flint to point their arrows.
A blockhouse, which also served as an Indian trading post, was built and operated here, 1813-1814, by George C. Sibley, trading agent from Fort Osage (Missouri). Also in the area were Cox's Fort, McMahan's Fort, and across the river Cooper's Fort--family defenses in the War of 1812.
In 1821 William Becknell crossed the river here, at what became Santa Fe Crossing, on the first successful trading expedition to Santa Fe.
Laid out as New Philadelphia in 1829, and later renamed Arrow Rock, the town served as seat of Saline County for one year, 1839. During the Civil War a part of the town was burned.
1950s text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The Society's journal printed these inscriptions as continuous text, not in the form they are cast on the markers.
The State Historical Society of Missouri created these markers with the State Highway Commission and tells their fuller story in its book Marking Missouri History. Current marker program ↗
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.