Editing Cotter, Arkansas (section)

===Exploration and settlement===
In 1819, [[Henry Schoolcraft]] was exploring the Ozarks and spent a night in the Cotter area. He said of the area,<ref>Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Regions of the Ozark of Missouri and Arkansas (1853) pg 120-121</ref>
 <blockquote>White River is one of the most beautiful and enchanting streams, and by far the most transparent, which discharge their waters into the Mississippi ... We here behold the assembled tributaries flowing in a smooth, broad. deep, and majestic current ... skirted at a short distance by mountains of the most imposing grandeur.... [The] extreme limpidity and want of colour ... was early seized upon by the French traders on first visiting this stream, in calling it "La Rivière Blanche" (White River).</blockquote>

In 1868, [[Jonathan Cunningham]] homesteaded 300 acres on a peninsula of the White River. In 1883, he sold it to [[L.P. Kemp]]. During that time, there was a ferry landing about 100 yards downriver called [[Lake's Ferry]]. The only power to operate the ferry was the current of the river. At the time, it was the only means of transportation across. Families would travel from Mountain Home and Yellville to visit the area, picnic, fish, and enjoy the nearby spring that was created naturally via the caves under the ground.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.railroadworkersmemorial.com/cotterhistory.htm |title=Early History of Cotter, Arkansas, site of the Railroad Workers Memorial |access-date=April 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821143359/http://www.railroadworkersmemorial.com/cotterhistory.htm |archive-date=August 21, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Future president, [[Herbert Hoover]], spent the summer of 1892 helping [[Geologist]] [[John C. Branner]] survey the northern [[Ozarks]]. By the early 1900s, there were many mining companies active in both Baxter and [[Marion County, Arkansas|Marion]] Counties. Cotter quickly became a central point where minerals could be shipped via [[steamboat]] to much larger cities in central Arkansas or southern [[Missouri]].

In 1902, the city opened a post office. In 1903, L.P. Kemp sold the 300 acres to the [[Red Bud Realty Company]] for an unknown amount. Red Bud's principles, [[W.V. Powell]], [[Jerry South]], and [[Thomas Combs]] all ended up having avenues named in their honor. A school opened in 1904. On July 7, 1904, 36 of the community's leaders petitioned to incorporate the town and on November 23, 1905, the city officially opened.