Van Buren, AR

Sense of History in the Ozarks

“Van Buren is one of those little towns you’re proud to call home,” says native Fred Williams, and he should know. His family moved to the Arkansas River Valley from Georgia 100 years ago. And it’s a move the Civil War history buff’s never regretted. Van Buren, says Williams, is a town that respects its past.

A look down Main Street substantiates Williams’ claim. The town’s National Historic District is alive with restored 19th-century buildings where 21st-century shoppers browse for antiques and specialty items in boutiques that run from the Old Frisco Railroad Depot to the banks of the Arkansas River. At its center are such Victorian treasures as Van Buren’s first bank, built in 1889, with its trademark cupola; and the 1891 King Opera House, where modern-day productions share a stage once occupied by orator William Jennings Bryant and singer Jenny Lind.

Down the street, the Crawford County Courthouse also stands as a reminder of Van Buren residents’ civic pride. Rebuilt from original bricks after arsonists set fire to it in 1877, the 1842 Italianate-style building is the oldest active courthouse west of the Mississippi. Its signature clock tower, financed by residents after winning their battle to retain Van Buren’s county-seat status, looms majestically over Main Street.

The courthouse square is the site of another pivotal turn in the river town’s history: the 1862 Battle of Van Buren, when Union troops marched through the now-historically preserved Main Street as Southern forces retreated down the Arkansas River in freight-hauling steamboats. Each spring, after studying the battle’s history, local elementary students sporting wooden rifles and homemade uniforms muster at the courthouse to re-enact the skirmish. “Now that’s a sight to see,” croons Williams.

Van Buren (pop. 18,986) was a rallying point, Williams adds, for several other area Civil War battles, including Wilson’s Creek in Springfield, Mo., and the battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove in northwest Arkansas. “Old State Highway 59 was the easiest way to travel north over the Boston Mountains,” Williams explains.

In more recent history, the town’s wealth of historically preserved buildings has led Hollywood directors to Van Buren. Its downtown has served as a backdrop for the Civil War miniseries The Blue and The Gray, as well as the movie Biloxi Blues and HBO’s Frank & Jesse. Williams and other locals credit retired ophthalmologist Louis Peer—“the grandfather of Main Street”—as the force behind restoration efforts that began in earnest in the 1970s.

Those efforts continue to reap benefits for sightseers searching for a sense of their state’s past as they travel to Van Buren on the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad. Twice weekly from April to September, the railroad’s restored passenger cars—gleaming with African mahogany and plush, green velvet seats—carry passengers on a roundtrip back in time as they wend from Springdale to Van Buren. Conductor Ron Korpella, a “rabid rail nut,” never tires of the journey, although his favorite time to ride the rails to Van Buren is in the fall, when a foliage tour operates three times a week.

“The Ozark Mountains are breathtaking then,” he says.

Van Buren’s picturesque setting and wholesome charm lured Cheryl Cuzco back to Arkansas after spending 13 years in New York City. Cuzco met her husband Rolando while working in a Manhattan eatery. It wasn’t long before their son, Andrew, now 11, made them reassess life in the city.

It was Cheryl’s idea to return to Arkansas. Her wholesale enterprise, fashioning whimsical children’s hats from palm leaves woven in Rolando’s native Ecuador, gave her freedom to relocate her family to nearby Cedarville in 1993. A few years later, the Cuzcos opened their “nuevo Arkansan-Latino” restaurant, Cafe Chisme (“The Gossip Cafe”), in an 1895 Main Street building they’ve decorated with splashes of color and a pocket-sized dining garden.

Like other Van Buren proprietors, Cheryl says she was attracted to Van Buren’s beauty and sense of history. Besides, she muses, “It’s a nice place to raise a family.”

Margaret Dornaus is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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