This Historic Washington County Arkansas site was built to allow viewers to understand the importance of places to the history and development of the County. Many of these places are no longer in existence but were where early settlers lived and died, and in some cases, what happened there influenced developments in other parts of the area.

I am a past president of Washington County Historical Society, and board member of Heritage Trails Partners. Initial inspiration for this site came from a booklet, Historic Washington County, written by Walter Lemke, Society founder and published by the Historical Society in 1952. Some of the historical material contained in the site comes from the Society's quarterly journal Flashback and other Society publications. Work with Heritage Trails Partners has made me more aware of Trail of Tears, Butterfield Stage and Civil War events which are documented on the Historic Sites page.

The author of the site grew up in and just west of Fayetteville and graduated from the University of Arkansas. My great-great-great grandfather, Mastin Petty Pool, came to eastern Washington County in 1854. During my high school and college years, I was fortunate to be able to travel the roads of the County while working for my father, Russell "Lefty" Poole, and saw many of these places when they were still active, even if with a single general store.

I must recognize the help of John Wilson at CAST at the University of Arkansas in preparing the maps using data from the Arkansas GeoStor facilty and the MapWindow software. I must also acknowledge the support of my wife, Janet, by allowing me to spend hours at the computer and doing research.

I hope the viewer will enjoy the information and pictures here as I have enjoyed recalling old memories and learning many new things about historic Washington County.