Marked Tree

For Little Rock Public Radio, this is Dan Boice, with Naming Arkansas.
Many a child has used a jackknife to carve their initials into the bark of a tree, and later perhaps the initials of one’s true love. It seems likely that the Poinsett County town of Marked Tree owes its name to just such an event. On the winding Little River, this site was an important landing place, and early travelers and explorers noticed the large and famous tree on the river bank with a large letter ‘M’ carved into its bark. One story says that the gang of notorious outlaw John Murrell had marked the tree as a rendezvous point in Murrell’s trade of stolen goods and enslaved people.
Another story says that the tree was marked by American Indians, and specifically “a wily old Indian chief named Moonshine.” Most historians are more inclined to go with the outlaw, but in any case, an 1890 flood washed away the tree and any reference to outlaws or wily old Indian chiefs. The town, however, still remains andpreserves the remarkable name.
For the University of Arkansas at Monticello this is Dan Boice.