July 6, 2012

In 1893, the U.S. Army chose the Big Rock in North Little Rock (Pulaski County) as the location for Fort Logan H. Roots, one of its new military posts. It served as an important military training facility in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1921, Fort Roots was transferred to the Public Health Service and became a veterans’ hospital. Today, Fort Roots remains an important part of the Veterans Health Administration. The 1896 Building 1, shown here in the early 1900s, served as one of the original barracks for enlisted men. In the twenty-first century, it houses a variety of offices for the Department of Veterans Affairs.