Exploring Early Arkansas: Maynard Pioneer Park & Museum and the Historic Rice-Upshaw House
Tucked away in the quiet northeast corner of Arkansas, Maynard Pioneer Park & Museum offers a window into frontier life. The museum grounds are filled with preserved buildings, artifacts, and exhibits that showcase how early settlers lived, worked, and built community. It’s the kind of place where you can step onto the grounds and immediately feel the stories of the past all around you—simple cabins, everyday tools, and the rugged spirit that shaped the region.
Just a short drive away, history runs even deeper. Along the Eleven Point River near Dalton stands the Rice-Upshaw House, a remarkable structure built around 1828 by Reuben Rice as a store and loom house for his rural trading center. In the mid-1840s, his youngest son, Thomas Blackman Rice, expanded the one-story log building into a family home—a transformation captured in photographs from around 1900. Today, it stands as one of Arkansas’s oldest surviving structures.
Thanks to a decade-long restoration effort led by Black River Technical College, the Rice-Upshaw House has been returned to its 19th-century appearance and is now open for guided tours. Walking through its rooms feels like stepping back nearly 200 years, with the Eleven Point River flowing quietly nearby—as it has since the first settlers arrived.
Together, Maynard Pioneer Park & Museum and the Rice-Upshaw House create a powerful connection to the region’s early roots, reminding visitors just how rich and enduring the history of northeast Arkansas truly is.