Editing Bentonville, Arkansas (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Bentonville Welcome.jpg|thumb|left|"Welcome to Bentonville" board put up at many entrances to the city]]
The first known use by humans of the area which is now known as Bentonville,  was as hunting grounds by the [[Osage Nation]] who lived in [[Missouri]]. The Osage would leave their settlements to hunt in present-day Benton County for months at a time before returning to their families. European settlers first inhabited the area around 1837 and named their settlement "Osage". By this time, the Osage had ceased using the area for hunting, and the European settlers began to establish farms. Upon establishment of Benton County on September 30, 1836, Osage was deemed a suitable site for the [[county seat]], and the town square was established as the home of county government the following year.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Barnes |first=Kenneth C. |date=2017 |title=Another Look behind the Masks: The Ku Klux Klan in Bentonville, Arkansas, 1922-1926 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26291365 |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=191–217 |jstor=26291365 |issn=0004-1823}}</ref> Osage was renamed Bentonville in honor of [[Thomas Hart Benton (politician)|Thomas Hart Benton]], a senator from [[Missouri]] who strongly supported Arkansas statehood.<ref>{{ cite web |title=Benton County Fun Facts |url=http://www.co.benton.ar.us/funfacts.aspx |access-date=May 31, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625151203/http://www.co.benton.ar.us/FunFacts.aspx |archive-date=June 25, 2012 }}</ref>