The town of Arrow Rock took its name from a ninety feet high bluff overlooking the Missouri River. The site was a stop on a Native American trading trail, and Indians made weapons from the bluff’s flint for twelve thousand years.

Lewis and Clark passed the “Prairie of Arrows” on June 9, 1804, and Clark returned to the site four years later. Clark and later white settlers understood the value of the site’s river location. The United States government established a trading post at the site in 1813. The town started ferry service across the Missouri a few years later.

The Arrow Rock Spring provided water for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, just as it had been a water source for Natives centuries before. Settlers officially founded a town named New Philadelphia at the site in 1829, but soon reverted to the name Arrow Rock. A store opened the next year, and the town quickly became an important river port and meeting place.

Joseph Huston opened the Old Tavern in 1834. The tavern underwent numerous renovations during the nineteenth century, and at one time had a ballroom used for dances and meetings.

Arrow Rock had one thousand residents in the mid-nineteenth century, but declined after railroad routes bypassed the town. The tavern was restored in 1923, and in 1963 the town of Arrow Rock became a National Historic Landmark.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Jeremy Hatcher.