Spadra

For Little Rock Public Radio, this is Dan Boice, with Naming Arkansas.
One of our state’s most mysterious names is that of the Johnson County town of Spadra, founded as a riverboat landing on the Arkansas River in the nineteenth century. According to a wonderful legend, one of Hernando de Soto’s soldiers fell in love with an Indian princess. They ran away, but were quickly tracked down by her family. The soldier fought until his sword broke and he was killed, and the place where he fell was named Spadra which is Spanish for “broken sword.” Over time, the soldier and the princess acquired the names Pedro and Coree, and a very long poem celebrating their doomed romance. Except that nothing in the story is true, except possibly a Spanish soldier trying to kidnap an Indian woman and being killed in the effort. The Spanish for broken sword is “spada rota,” not spadra, and an 1819 account refers to the place as Spadre. In 1866, a resident moved to California and established there a town named Spadra, but without the Arkansas romantic etymology.
For the University of Arkansas at Monticello this is Dan Boice.