Hernando De Soto's Route through Arkansas

Extract

As a means of celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the great Spanish expedition through our southern states led by Hernando de Soto and Luis de Moscoso in the years 1539-1543 a Commission was created in 1935 by act of Congress. The members of that Commission were appointed by President Roosevelt and included the writer who was made chairman by vote of the others. This Commission was authorized “to make a thorough study of the subject of De Soto's expedition” and report back to Congress “its recommendations for a suitable and appropriate celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of said expedition.” The latter part of the instructions being entirely outside of my experience or training, I devoted myself, along with certain of my fellow members, to a study of the career of De Soto, and particularly of the route pursued by his army, so as to determine what communities would be interested in the proposed celebration. This study was carried on for several years and its results incorporated into a “Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission” which was printed in 1939 by the Government Printing Office, as House Document Number 7.