Belle Point, April 24, 2019. On this date two hundred years ago the botanist and scientific explorer Thomas Nuttall arrived at “the garrison” established on a bluff overlooking the Arkansas River where the Poteau River enters. He spent the next two months exploring the local area and south through what would become southeastern Oklahoma and the Choctaw Nation and left us a journal of his observations. Photo: Poteau River as it converges with the Arkansas, taken April 24, 2019.