Friedrich Gerstäcker's Natural History Observations in Arkansas, 1838-1842
2014; Arkansas Historical Association; Volume: 73; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2327-1213
AutoresKimberly G. Smith, Michael Lehmann,
Tópico(s)Plant and animal studies
ResumoFriedrich GerStacKer iS celebrated elsewhere in this volume for his liter- ary achievements, but he was first and foremost a hunter when he entered Arkansas for the first time in 1838, and he was immediately impressed with the amount of game that he encountered. By all accounts, Arkan- sas was a hunter's paradise at that time. This can possibly be attributed to the low number of inhabitants during colonial times due to epidem- ic diseases, which allowed game populations to flourish.1 Gerstacker's primary interest was hunting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), specifically large bucks, and his diaries and later writings form one of the best portraits of an early deerslayer in America.2 He also spent consider- able time hunting wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) and American black bears (Ursus americanus). His accounts of black bear hunts (and those of Fent Noland) are also the earliest and most detailed for this region of the United States.3 He only occasionally hunted other wildlife such as ducks and panthers. He recorded many observations on the flora and fauna that he encountered in Arkansas, and, taken as a whole, they provide the best description of the environment of the new state.4Gerstacker actually traveled through only a limited portion of Arkan- sas between 1838 and 1842, mostly the central delta north of the Arkan- sas River to the southern part of Crowley's Ridge and Batesville, and westward in the Arkansas River Valley to the area around the Fourche La Fave River, from which he made one trip to the Ozarks.5 He first entered Arkansas on January 22, 1838, along the Southwest Trail at the Current River, in present-day Clay County, and left extreme southwest Arkansas into Texas on March, 15, 1838, having spent most of the time in the Ar- kansas River Valley. He returned on May 18, 1839, from Memphis and left from Memphis on February 9, 1840, having spent most of his time in the vicinity of Bayou DeView and the Cache River. He made a short two- week hunting trip in eastern Arkansas in mid-August 1840 and returned in early 1841 to establish a settlement on the Fourche La Fave in Perry County in central Arkansas. On December 19, 1841, he departed for the Ozarks, arriving near Combs, Madison County, on December 24, 1841. He hunted that area until February 14, 1842, arrived back at the settlement on February 27, was in Little Rock in March, back at the Fourche La Fave settlement in April, then back to Little Rock, where he attended a Fourth of July barbecue.6 The following day, he left Little Rock by boat for New Orleans. During those visits to Arkansas, he had the good fortune of rel- atively mild winters and summers.7 The period 1838-1842 saw a major drought in the eastern United States, and it did not rain or snow very often during his visits. (The year 1840 was relatively wet in eastern Oklahoma and, presumably, Arkansas compared to today, but Gerstacker was not in Arkansas for most of 1840.)8In the thirty years preceding Gerstacker's first visit, several important travelers visited what would become the state of Arkansas, most notably the explorers William Dunbar and George Hunter, the naturalist Thom- as Nuttall, the geologist Henry Schoolcraft, the ornithologist John James Audubon, the surveyor George W. Featherstonhaugh, the writer Washing- ton Irving, and Charles Latrobe, all of whom made some observations on natural history. However, most visited only one region of Arkansas and spent far less time within the state than Gerstacker did. Nonetheless, their observations provide a backdrop to those of Gerstacker in terms of what they saw, what he reported, and what he did not report.Gerstacker provided the first detailed descriptions of old-growth bot- tomland forests in eastern Arkansas, a mosaic of very large trees, forest openings, and nearly impenetrable thickets, which have mostly disap- peared due to harvesting and agriculture.9 Dominant tree species were oaks (Quercus species), particularly overcup oak (Q. …
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