Cross Hollow Sign Dedication

The first of approximately 100 roadway and highway markers stretching along the NWA Heritage Trail will be officially unveiled during a ceremony at Cross Hollow in Lowell. This location is a site of a Civil War encampment and the location where the Butterfield Stagecoach, Trail of Tears and Civil War trails coincide.

Down a country road in present day Lowell sits Cross Hollow, a site of a civil war encampment. This site was the winter quarters for both the Union army and Confederate army during the winter of 1861 and 1862. Ten to twelve thousand Confederate soldiers wintered here first, but burned the buildings just before the arrival and encampment of Union soldiers. Prior to the Civil War activity the Butterfield Stagecoach raced through the Hollow from 1858- 1861 on its way from Tipton, Missouri to San Francisco. Earlier yet, from 1837 to 1839, the old road through Cross Hollow was one of several routes used for the tragic Indian Removal now called the Trail of Tears where thousands of Cherokee Indians and other tribes were forcibly removed from their eastern homelands to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. Several trip journals make specific reference to traveling through Cross Hollow on the way to Fayetteville and on to Fort Gibson.

When: Thursday, May 18 at 1 p.m.

Where: Cross Hollow in Lowell.

Directions from south 1-540

– Take the Lowell exit, Hwy. 264/West Monroe, J. B. Hunt is on the right just prior to the exit.
– At the traffic signal, turn right onto West Monroe, there is a McDonald's on the right.
– Proceed east on West Monroe crossing Hwy. 71B to the railroad tracks.
– At the tracks, immediately turn left onto Jackson Street.
– Follow Jackson to McClure Street.
– At McClure turn right, and proceed to Old Wire Road.
– Turn left on Old Wire Road, and follow it to Cross Hollow. (After a mile or so, Old Wire Road becomes a dirt road. This is the section that is on the National Register of Historic Sites - Trail of Tears).

– If you get lost, call (479) 601-3719.