Wesley Cate: Where did Military Road originally run?

Ernest Crawford: I think it went from here and split up into two ways and one of those went to Fort Smith, which was kind of a jumping off point.  It's how you got to the west.

Wesley Cate:  So from Fort Smith you could go pretty much anywhere?

Ernest Crawford: Well, they could go, then they went into Oklahoma.  I think that was the jumping off place. In fact you'd have to double-check back then, because I couldn't tell you. Fort Smith, if I remember Arkansas History she'd have to tell you something in that (gesture to his wife), I think it was the only place over on the borderline.  Hope and all that down south, I don't know about that.

Wesley Cate:  Do you know what year it was constructed in?

Ernest Crawford: The Trail of Tears, you mean?

Wesley Cate:  No sir, the Military Road.

Ernest Crawford: Now Margaret Woolfolk may tell you the difference between the Trail of Tears and Military Road because the Trail of Tears was before the Civil War.  The Trail of Tears come through here.  The Boy Scouts, in '71 or '72, from the levee, at Mound City, went over the levee, and then the old dirt road that ran alongside the shoot that used to be the Mississippi River at one time as the Esperanza Trail.  The Boy Scouts marked it and they put-

Sara Crawford (wife):  Some little markers are still up.

Ernest Crawford: They put markers, big markers up along that trail which, when they got through with this Troop 72 Eagle Scout Project they named all that.  They put up plaques and said what happened all along there. Like the New Hope Shoot.  See, that's where the Indians crossed was New Hope Shoot.  That is where the Trail of Tears came through there... then of course it came over the levee and then I'm sure that the old Military Road is that same road that the Indians came and went through Marion. I'm thinking that Military Road and the Trail of Tears was the same going through Marion and out [Highway] 64. Then somwhere, it turns and goes down towards Arkansas City, cause there's stretches of road down there known as Military Road.

Wesley Cate:  I've heard parts of Benton called Military Road.

Ernest Crawford: There's something through there.  Whether or not they split and part of the Indians went a west way and a south way, I can't tell you, but as far as I know, right here in Marion, right here in front of the [Elementary] school is where the Indians make their trek.

Wesley Cate:  I read in one of Margaret Woolfolk's book that Military Road was the postal route for Marionin its early stages.  Was it the bloodline of anything else for Marion?

Ernest Crawford: Marion is the oldest city around here. It's on the banks of the Alligator Lake, where steamboats used to come up and tie on to the place where Military Road crosses the railroad tracks and makes a curve to the south.  Right there is where steamboats used to dock at Marion Lake, which used to be known as Alligator Lake and before that it was another.  It's been changed several times.
(side note: Marion Lake no longer exists, there is only a SMALL ditch that looks like it would normally go beside the road)

Wesley Cate:  Are there any other ways it has affected the development of Marion?

Ernest Crawford: The way its affected the building of Marion is that more people settled here.  They tried to settle in New Hope further up [the Military Road], but that was too close to the river that I'm sure every time it flooded it flooded them out.

Wesley Cate:  Did Marion settle around Military Road or was Military Road built through Marion?

Ernest Crawford: Well it was an Indian trail going through and the first settlers - now, Margaret [Woolfolk] can tell you more about this than me - but it was originally Spanish land settled on this Indian trail.  In fact my house still has a Spanish grant.  My lot still has a Spanish deed
...

Ernest Crawford: Now, right before you get to Mound City there's a cemetery right at the curve there used to be an oak tree.  It used to be said that Andrew Jackson sat down and had lunch right under that tree. He probably came through Marion.
...

Ernest Crawford: On this Military Road, in the early 1900's, the Marion Hotel was the main stomping grounds for everybody around here.  People came from all over northeast Arkansas to the Marion Hotel for events.  Most of them came by Military Road, which was like our higways are to us today.

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