Return to First Page---ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume XLVIII, Summer 1989 p. 138
Observations made in a voyage, commencing at St. Catherine's landing, on the east bank of the Mississippi, proceeding downwards to the mouth of the Red river; and from thence, ascending that river, the Black river, and the Washita river, as high as the Hot Springs, in the proximity of the last mentioned river. Extracted from the journals of William Dunbar, Esquire, and Dr. Hunter, American State Papers: Indian Affairs I (Washington, D. C., 1832), 731-743.
Thomas Nuttall, A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the year 1819 (Philadelphia, 1821).
Zebulon M. Pike, An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and Through the Western Parts of Louisiana . . . in the Year 1807 (Philadelphia, 1810).
Edwin James, compiler, An Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains Performed in the years 1819 and '20, by Order of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Sec'y of War; under the command of Major Stephen H. Long (Philadelphia, 1823).
George W. Featherstonhaugh, Excursions Through the Slave States (New York, 1844).
The History of Louisiana, translated from the French of M. Le Page Du Pratz (New ed., London, 1774).
Fortunately, today a large amount of French and Spanish documentary material is available, and most of the names that attracted Dr. Branner can be found in one form or another in these records. A more positive determination of the origin of many of these names now can be made. Consequently, I offer a revision of Dr. Branner's study and, in Part II, additional names that he did not consider. I use his format and enclose his explanations in quotes in Part I. His list follows:
ANTOINE.--- Dr. Branner recalled that Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz remarked in his Histoire de la Louisiane that there was "a silver mine in the country of the 'Cadodaquioux' or Caddo, located by a Portuguese named Antoine. Stream in Pike and Clark counties and town in Pike County."
Du Pratz said the silver mine was on Red River (1), and there is no known evidence that the Portuguese ever came to the Antoine River. Local legend has it that the town was named for a dead Frenchman whose body was discovered on the bank of the nearby river.
