7 
EXTRACTS FROM [PRELIMINARY] REPORT. 
said to lie very abundant. It is bituminous, but less soft than that furnished by the eastern markets. 
It burns with a clear flame, without smoke, and with little residuum. Cropping out in veins, 
it is easily obtained, and is generally used in blacksmiths’ shops, in grates, and in steamboats 
of this region. Van Buren we found a flourishing village, with evidences of wealth, enterprise, 
and prosperity. It is the centre of trade for an extensive agricultural district. Being situated 
at the foot of a hill on the river’s left bank, it has once or twice been flooded by extraordinary 
freshets of the river. These freshets have previously occurred once in about ten years. The 
worst was in 1833, when nearly all the bottom-lands of the river were submerged. The last, 
in 1844, was less extensive. It is to be hoped that floods will not again occur, as fear of the 
devastation they produce is doubtless one cause of the scarcity of plantations upon the soil of 
this fertile valley. 
The site for Fort Smith, five miles above, was selected in 1817 by Colonel Long, and called 
Belle Point. It occupies an elevated point of land immediately below the junction of the Poteau, 
a small tributary from the southwest, with the Arkansas. The hill which forms the basis of 
the fort, is of a dark gray micaceous sandstone, in horizontal laminae, and rises about thirty feet 
above the water. The country back of the fort has an undulating surface, gradually ascending 
as it recedes, and is covered with heavy forests of oak, tulip tree, sassafras, &c. Towards the 
south, from thirty to forty miles distant, rise to the height of two thousand feet, summits of the 
Point Sucre and Cavaniol mountains, which stand on opposite sides of a branch of Poteau river. 
The spot proving in every respect a favorable one, under protection of the military, there sprang 
into existence a town, now grown to a flourishing city. Observations place it four hundred and 
sixty feet above the level of the sea. Supposing the distance from Little Rock to be one hundred 
and sixty miles by land, the elevation one hundred and fifty feet, will give a grade less than one 
foot to the mile. Should the high lands intervening offer as few obstacles as supposed, the 
railway to this point may be constructed at moderate expense. Such a road, even should it 
proceed no further, would be of incalculable advantage to the State. 
The mineral resources of Arkansas are worthy of consideration. Lead, copper, silver, and 
iron ore, are said to be abundant. The iron mountains near the Missouri line are alone 
worthy a railroad. Beds of coal are of great extent, cropping out in various places near the 
river Arkansas. The veins are thick, and easily worked; the quality is excellent, and the 
mines apparently inexhaustible. Extensive quarries of roofing slate found here, are now sup¬ 
plying the markets of Cincinnati and St. Louis. 
Timber, of the best quality for the purposes of a railway, this country furnishes in abundance. 
Wheat, cotton, and maize, are staple productions of the State. With an outlet for these 
products, such as a railroad would afford, population would increase, and the virgin soil of 
Arkansas no longer lie dormant. 
Dr. Shumard, geologist and naturalist upon the exploring expedition of Captain Marcy, 
kindly presented to me his thermometrical observations at Fort Smith, extending for a period 
of more than a year. These show a climate most favorable to agricultural purposes. For the 
year ending June 1, 1852, the mean temperature is 65°.47. The mean for August, the 
warmest month, was 89°.4. The least, 34°.84, is the mean for January. But one storm of 
snow is recorded during the year ; that was two inches, in January. Rain occurred every 
month ; the least in September, October, and January, averaging one and one-third inch 
each. May appears the rainy season ; twelve and one-sixteenth inches having been measured 
during the month. For the year, the fall recorded is fifty-one and one-fourth inches. There 
were two hundred and nineteen moist days, eighty-two rainy, and one hundred and twenty- 
six dry days ; twenty not having been noted. The mean temperature of summer is 86°.98 ; of 
autumn, 69°.11; of winter, 42°.23 ; of spring 63°.57. The highest temperature recorded is 
104°, in August; the least, 4°, occurred in January. The summer referred to is that on 
which this place was visited by the scourge of cholera. 
