In 1673, the first European explorers traveled through Arkansas River Wilderness and encountered the friendly Quapaw Indians. Nine years later La Sall Expedition landed at "La Petite Roche," the little rock that rested along the wild banks of the Arkansas. Both the French and the Spanish expeditions followed after, but even after 1819, when the Arkansas territory had been created, the Little Rock area was still no more than wilderness. The bluffs of "La Petite Roche," did not go unnoticed for long. Little Rock became the seat of the new territorial government in 1821 and in 1831 was incorporated as a city. In 1836, Little Rock had become the capital of the state of Arkansas.
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