The Pea Ridge National Military Park (Black & White)

The loop walking trail through the park (dashed line on the map) is well worth following. It's about seven miles long and it's mostly flat. I hiked it years ago and really enjoyed it. Much of it follows the driving tour, but if seven miles is too much for you, don't miss the part of the trail that can be accessed at the Elkhorn Tavern. It continues down the old Wire Road up which Price's Missourians attacked on the first day, then along the ridge where their artillery was emplaced and around several fields that saw considerable fighting. Best of all, you'll probably have it all to yourselves.
 
About reenactments on NPS battlefields: "NPS policy reflects sensitivity to the human suffering and sacrifice that took place on the battlefields and prohibits battle reenactments, demonstrations of battle tactics that involve exchanges of fire between opposing lines, taking casualties, hand-to-hand combat, or any other form of simulated warfare."

To my knowledge the only Civil War battle reenacted on an NPS site was at Manassas in 1961 during the centennial. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/centennial-reenactment-first-manassas My understanding is that the Park Service initially denied the request but the organizers brought it to the attention of President Kennedy, who replied "I like sham battles!" And so the battle was fought.
 
About reenactments on NPS battlefields: "NPS policy reflects sensitivity to the human suffering and sacrifice that took place on the battlefields and prohibits battle reenactments, demonstrations of battle tactics that involve exchanges of fire between opposing lines, taking casualties, hand-to-hand combat, or any other form of simulated warfare."

To my knowledge the only Civil War battle reenacted on an NPS site was at Manassas in 1961 during the centennial. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/centennial-reenactment-first-manassas My understanding is that the Park Service initially denied the request but the organizers brought it to the attention of President Kennedy, who replied "I like sham battles!" And so the battle was fought.

Supposedly the Centennial events had a couple accidents, and lawsuits. Money is always the reason for such things where Government is concerned.

They're reasoning ain't nothing but a self serving, if lofty, excuse. If we were talking about a battlefield where blood was shed ten years ago, yeah it'd make a LOT of sense, but we're talking 160 years, they're spirits have flown, and on top of that CW veterans had the first reenactments at places like Gettysburg.

Reenactments if handled and run by the right well meaning people can serve to get the not-caring public to get interested in they're history and preserving it, and most of all raise much needed dollars for preservation of those battlefields. State Parks do it, but the NPS doesn't. They'd rather sit back and collect tax dollar allotments from DC. People think NPS sites are untouchable, but if the Government and taxpayers don't care, it'll eventually be declared surplus property and developed. We're already near the point where that can happen, and Pea Ridge is ripe for it.

NPS bureaucracy ain't sensitive to nothing, if they're excuse was true reasoning, they wouldn't have forced most all they're pro historians of Ed Bearss caliber into retirement.
 
I walked out the old Telegraph road from the Tavern down to where the tanyard stood and a bit further. Travel on that road would have been difficult to say the least. A lot of history traveled that road. Interesting battle and battlefield too. One of my favorites.
 
As always, great pics! Many thanks for posting them, BB. I spent my 50th birthday tramping this field . . . brought back good memories!
 
Visited in the fall of 2020 and agree it is well maintained. Center was closed, but you could drive or walk all around. It was not crowded as we went on a weekday and COVID
 
I highly recommend this book to tour this battlefield.

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* The Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) occurred on this day in 1862. U.S. Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier General Samuel Curtis clashed with Confederate soldiers under the command of Brigadier General Earl Van Dorn in northwest Arkansas. On March 8, 1862, this battle ended in a defeat for the Confederates. This conflict helped to secure the U.S. Army's hold on the state of Missouri.
 
For our honeymoon 47 years ago, my new wife and I were forced to live/spend within our means. So, we took a trip through the Ozarks and saw the sites, including Pea Ridge.

She was a good sport about it and had previously made trips to Shiloh with me. We got pictures of us with the cannons shown in Bill's initial post.

Dang it, /I wish /I could learn brevity.

Thanks for the photos Bill.
 
I'm curious, I recently found out from an elderly friend and mentor, that when he was younger, Elkhorn Tavern was still lived in by two little old ladies that supposedly were little kids when the battle took place. Apparently they were still ticked off at the Yanks taking down an tree they loved to climb and play on as kids.

This would've been right before the Centennial sometime in the early to mid 1950's.

I'm curious to know if these little old ladies left recollections on paper.
 
A former colleague of mine from Missouri told me that before he NPS acquired the battlefield, the highway ran in front of the tavern. As a boy he picked up acorns from a tree at the site and later planted them at his antique shop in Vienna, Missouri, where they exist today. Quite a souvenir!
 
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