Editing Clarendon, Arkansas (section)

==History==

===Settlement through antebellum period===
The area around Clarendon was originally populated by various [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] groups. By 1799, French hunters and trappers had built cabins at the mouth of the [[Cache River (Arkansas)|Cache River]]. It was the point where the Military Road from [[Memphis, Tennessee]], to [[Little Rock]] crossed the [[White River (Arkansas)|White River]]. The Military Road was begun in 1826 and completed in 1828. By that date, a ferry crossing and post office had been established in Clarendon, and the town served as the terminus for a stagecoach line to the west. The Military Road was used as the route for some groups of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] being relocated from eastern states to [[Oklahoma]] during the forced relocations commonly known as the [[Trail of Tears]]; [[Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw]], [[Creek people|Creek]], and [[Cherokee]] groups are known to have traveled along it.

The town also acquired railroad connections.  In 1872 the town was added to the Arkansas Central Railway, later the [[Arkansas Midland Railroad]], linking it to the Mississippi River port of Helena, Arkansas.<ref name=Narrow>{{cite book |last=Hilton |first=George W.|date=1990 |title= American Narrow Gauge Railroads|publisher= Stanford University Press|pages=75–80,313–314|isbn=0-8047-2369-9}}</ref><ref name=NarrowEnc>{{cite web|url= https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/narrow-gauge-railroads-5987/ |title=Narrow Gauge Railroads|publisher= Encyclopedia of Arkansas|accessdate=June 15, 2024}}</ref><ref name=Helena>{{cite web|url= https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/helena-west-helena-phillips-county-950/ |title=Helena-West Helena|publisher= Encyclopedia of Arkansas|accessdate=June 15, 2024}}</ref>  Though it required construction of a 4-mile-long White River bridge and trestle, Clarendon was added to the line of the [[Texas and St. Louis Railway]], a continuous system between Texas and Missouri, by mid-1883.<ref name=Museum>{{cite web|url= https://arkansasrailroadmuseum.org/about/cotton-belt-route.html  |title=St. Louis Southwestern Railroad History|publisher=Arkansas Railroad Museum|accessdate=October 5, 2023}}</ref>    The Texas and St. Louis Railway trackage became the [[St. Louis Southwestern Railway]] or “Cotton Belt” in 1891, and the Arkansas Midland trackage later became the part of the [[St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway]] in 1910.<ref name=Museum/><ref name=Narrow/>

===Civil War and Reconstruction===
The city of Clarendon was officially incorporated in 1859. In 1864, the city was burned to the ground by [[Union Army|Union]] forces in retaliation for the sinking of the tinclad Union gunboat ''USS Queen City'' by forces under the command of Confederate Brigadier General [[Joseph O. Shelby]]. The town's charter was dissolved in 1884, and it was reincorporated in 1898.

===Gilded age through early 20th century===
[[File:Merchant and Planters Bank 001.jpg|right|thumb|upright|The [[Merchants and Planters Bank (Clarendon, Arkansas)|Merchants and Planters Bank]] was built in 1921 and designed by [[Charles L. Thompson]].]]
In the early 1900s, Clarendon developed a number of industries, including lumber, staves and barrels, oars, and buttons made from the shells of the area's plentiful freshwater mussels. The mussels also provided freshwater pearls, which were bought and sold at the Clarendon Pearl Market. The Moss Brothers Bat Company supplied baseball bats to a number of major league baseball players during this era.

Like most of eastern Arkansas, Clarendon was devastated by the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]]. The main [[levee]] at Clarendon held until the White River reached a height of {{convert|38.5|ft}}, {{convert|8.5|ft}} above normal flood stage; the flood eventually crested at {{convert|44|ft}}. While no fatalities were reported, the town was inundated by water up to the second floor of many buildings, and the catastrophic inrush of water when the levee broke caused considerable damage to many buildings. The cleanup of mud and debris took many years.

===World War II onwards===
The area around Clarendon today is primarily agricultural; tourism related to the area's hunting and fishing resources is the most common non-agricultural economic activity. The reported rediscovery of the [[ivory-billed woodpecker]] in 2004–2005 in the Cache River and White River National Wildlife Refuges has brought new attention to the area.