September 14, 2007

This mid-1900s aerial view of the Pea Ridge (Benton County) battlefield shows the field much as it looked at the time the battle was fought in early March 1862. One of the largest and most important battles fought west of the Mississippi River, it ended in a Confederate defeat. At war’s end, the land was returned to cultivation until the early 1960s, when the area was designated as the Pea Ridge National Military Park.