We are only two years away from the 200th anniversary of the trip the English botanist and naturalist Thomas Nuttall took up the Arkansas River in 1819, the first scientifically trained observer to visit these areas. Nuttall kept a journal of his travels, first published in 1821. In it, he described plants, landscapes, and wildlife he observed along the way. His journey in the Arkansa Territory began at Arkansas Post on the Mississippi River. He stayed for several days at Fort Smith, that army post being only two years old at the time. He ventured south from there to the Red River and then further upstream into what is now Oklahoma, but was at the time still Arkansa Territory. The forced removals of the Cherokee and Choctaw were still 12 to 15 years in the future.
Over the next two years we plan to organize field trips to explore the land Nuttall traversed, and to do talks and presentations where we can to bring attention to the occasion.