Visitors Guide to St. Francis, Arkansas
Multiple interpretive signs at Chalk Bluff Battlefield Parks recount a Civil War battle
St. Francis is a small community of approximately 250 people in northeastern Clay County along the St. Francis River near the Missouri border. European settlement of the St. Francis area began in the early 1800s and a post road was established to deliver mail weekly between St. Francis and Helena (Phillips County) from 1816 to 1819. Steamboats were able to navigate the St. Francis River and in 1836, the Gladitor completed a six-day trip from New Orleans to the St. Francis. In the 1840s, Abraham Seitz established a home and ferry on the St. Francis River above the town, providing a crossing for settlers traveling west or east. A small hamlet soon grew up around the Seitz ferry and store and the site took the name of Chalk Bluff after the name of the nearby bluff.
During the Civil War Chalk Bluff was a strategic point as it overlooked the only major road between southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas, and whoever controlled the Bluff controlled the road. Moreover, its location on the St. Francis River made the Chalk Bluff community the collection point for supplies to be shipped downstream to Confederate troops further south. There were several skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces in 1862 and 1863 and a minor battle known as the "Battle of Chalk Bluff” was fought on May 1 and 2, 1863 with Confederate forces under General John S. Marmaduke being able to successfully retreat back into Arkansas over a quickly constructed floating log bridge after a failed invasion of southeastern Missouri. Chalk Bluff was able to prosper after the Civil War until the St. Louis, Arkansas, and Texas railroad crossed the St. Francis River two miles south at St. Francis. The town of St. Francis was formally laid out at the new crossing. When a highway bridge was built at St. Francis crossing the St. Francis around 1900 the need for the ferry at Chalk Bluff ferry was eliminated and the ferry was abandoned and the town gradually died out. Chalk Bluff Battlefield Park, northwest of St. Francis, has picnic facilities and a barrier free interpretive hiking trail and marks the location of where the community of Chalk Bluff once existed.
