Historic Washington State Park | Arkansas State Parks

Dr. James Alexander Lafayette Purdom and His Home

Dr. James Alexander Lafayette Purdom was hardly a man who stayed put. A surgeon educated at the University of Pennsylvania, he spent his early life pinballing between Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. So what finally convinced him to settle down? It was this property in Washington, Arkansas, which he bought in 1843, linking his memory forever to the house that now carries...

A Mint for Health and Herb Gardens: Narrowleaf Mountain Mint

Oct 2025

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Chris Adams

Narrowleaf mountain mint provides a nectar source for pollinators and is well-suited for use in restoration. It attracts many species of butterflies and bees. It is an essential pollinator of pepper, watermelon, strawberry, and tomato plants.

A Mint for Health and Herb Gardens: Narrowleaf Mountain Mint

A Plant for Pollinators: Discovering the Rio Grande Clammyweed

Aug 2025

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Chris Adams

Historic Washington State Park recently received a generous donation of various native flowering plants, which have been planted throughout the park's gardens. Among these is the Rio Grande Clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra (L.) DC. ssp. riograndensis Iltis). This perennial plant is native to the southern United States, Mexico, and parts of Central and South America. It...

A Plant for Pollinators: Discovering the Rio Grande Clammyweed

Historic Washington State Park to host 19th Annual Red River Heritage Symposium

Jul 2025

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Chris Adams

Historic Washington State Park will host the 19th Annual Red River Heritage Symposium on Saturday, July 26, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. This year’s theme is “Trail of Tears in the Red River Region” and will focus on the removal period of the Choctaw tribe as they traveled from Mississippi into southeastern Oklahoma and the impact that had on the Great Bend Region of the Red...

Historic Washington State Park to host 19th Annual Red River Heritage Symposium

Tour the Crouch House: Building techniques of the past

Jul 2025

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Chris Adams

Augustus M. Crouch journeyed from Georgia to Washington, Arkansas, around 1840. A veteran of the Mexican War, he transitioned from soldier to his trade as a watchmaker, a profession he pursued for decades.

Tour the Crouch House: Building techniques of the past

A Life in Service: John Rogers Eakin, Arkansas Statesman (1822-1880)

Jun 2025

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Chris Adams

John Rogers Eakin was born on February 14, 1822, in Shelbyville, Tennessee, to John Eakin and Lucretia Pearson Eakin. He attended the University of Nashville from 1838 to 1840 and later studied law at Yale University from 1842 to 1843.

Captain Abraham Block: Pioneer of Arkansas History

May 2025

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Chris Adams

Captain Abraham Block (1787-1857) stands as a significant figure in the early history of our state. Born in Bohemia, he emigrated to America and, in 1823, became one of the pioneering settlers in the upper Red River region of Arkansas.

Captain Abraham Block: Pioneer of Arkansas History

The Candle Shop

Feb 2025

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Chris Adams

This small, charming building has been part of the park since 1973. It originally served as Shades of Earth Pottery, run by Hershel Cannon. The park acquired the property in 1979 and turned it into a working candle shop to help keep an important historical craft alive.

The 1840s Through The Eyes Of Nathan Smith

Oct 2024

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Chris Adams

Take a look back into the 1840s with a glimpse of early life in Southwest Arkansas, as seen through the eyes of Nathan Douglas Smith- a pioneering doctor whose letters to family capture the transformation of a once wild frontier into a thriving community.

The 1840s Through The Eyes Of Nathan Smith

The Ithaca "Flues" Model Shotgun

Sep 2024

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Chris Adams

Learn about one of the guns inside our weapons museum used to stop bank robbers from robbing this bank on December 16, 1925.

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