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Saracen Trail Saracen’s Trail is a historical trail that covers approximately 11 miles of city streets and grassy levees. To complete this trail you will be required to have a compass and the skill to use it. Good hiking shoes are recommended.

A canteen would be useful, although water and drinks are available along the trail. There are several suitable rest stops, with restrooms. There are many points of interest along the way, so stop and enjoy them, but pace yourself.
    After completing the registration form, hike the trail, filling in the questionnaire as you go. Return to the Fire Department to  have your finished form validated.

Start on the north end of the Pine Bluff Civic Center located at 8th and State Street. At the flag pole, give the pledge to our flag.

Proceed to the west side of the building to the fire department office, to the left of the engine bays. The fireman on duty will stamp your trail application sheet with the time and date. Ascend the steps on the west side of the building. Count the columns around the perimeter if the civic center, starting with the west side, going to the north, east and ending on the south side of the complex.

1. How many columns did you count? _________________
Descend the steps on the east side of the building. Proceed south and cross to the other side of 10th street. Go west to the middle of the block, where a statue is located on top of the hill.

2. What is this statue, and to whom is it dedicated?______________________________________
From here, go west to the corner. In the grass at this corner is a monument.

3. What is the monument commending?
When______________________   by whom? ___________________________

Travel 30 yards south and you will see a plaque.

4. What does the plaque commemorate? _______________________
Name two of the five dreads mentioned __________________________    _____________________

On State Street, go north to Eighth Avenue, turn west, and walk to the end of the block.

5. What is the zip code of Pine Bluff, displayed on the front of the Post Office   _________________

On the north side of the street, you will see the Arts & Science Center.
Cross over to the west side of Main Street and proceed north 1/2 block to the M.B. Gottlieb building. On the north side of this building is a mural of early Pine Bluff. Observe.

6. What is the subject of the mural, and what time period ______________________________

Continue walking north on Main Street past 6th Avenue to the center of the block. Here you see a small park. This site was the first radio station in Pine Bluff, owned and operated by Arkansas Power and Light Co.

Go to the corner of 5th Avenue and Main Street, cross the street, turn west, go to the west wall of the last building on the block. Observe the mural.

7. What is the theme of the mural? ____________________________________
What is the name on the boat _________________________  What is the year _______________
Return to the corner of 5th and Main. On the southeast corner you will see the tallest building in Pine Bluff, 11 stories. Cross to the east side of the street, turn north, observing the old Pines Hotel.

8. How many columns stand in front? _____________________

On the east side of the street, you will find America’s only Band Museum. There is also a 1940’s soda fountain in the rear. Go in and register in the guest book. Tour the exhibits if you wish.

Return to Main Street and go south to 5th Avenue. Turn east, travel east 2 1/2 blocks to the east side of the Purdue Co. Building. Look at the mural.

9. What does the mural commemorate? _________________________________________

Back track west along 5th Avenue to State Street. Turn north, go one block to the 4th Avenue Train Station (Circa 1907). This building is the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County Museum. The entrance is in the rear. Register in the guest book. This museum is wonderful, linger as long as you dare. Water and restrooms are available.

Leave the train station and proceed west to Main, cross over to the west side of the street, go north to 3rd and main. Turn left. Look at the mural on the north wall of the building. Cross 3rd Avenue to the mural on the south wall of Doc’s Pawn shop. Stand on the edge of the top step, in the center of the mural. Look straight ahead, moving your eyes slowly from side to side. Are you there, on Main Street 1888? Note the train tracks and trolley rails.
Cross to the east side of Main and walk north 1/2 block. Observe this mural.

10. What does this mural commend? ___________________________________

Continue north on Main to Barraque Street. On the west wall of this building is a small mural.

11. Whom does it depict? _____________________________________

Cross over Barraque Street to front of Courthouse. From the monuments in front of the courthouse answer:

12. When was the first courthouse built? ____________________
For whom was the county named? _________________________
When was the Battle of Pine Bluff fought? ___________________

Moving around the west side of the building to the northwest corner, read the plaque. It commemorates Miss Willie K. Hocker, who designed the Arkansas Flag.

13. What year was the first flag designed? _______________________

Go to the south entrance to the courthouse. Observe the statue.

14. Who was David O’Dodd?  __________________________________________________

If you look north, you will see Lake Pine Bluff. The Boy Scouts had a part in the dedication of this lake. Where the lake is now, in days gone by, was the bed of the Arkansas River. In 1927, the river flooded, undercutting the banks to within a few yards of the courthouse. If not for men dynamiting a levee north of town – changing the course of the river – the courthouse and Jefferson Hotel to the west of the courthouse would have been lost to the river. During weekdays the courthouse is open, you may go in and look around. Restrooms, water and drink machine is available.

Leave by the north exit. Go east across the street and you will see the Dexter Harding House (sawdust bridge) now use as a visitor center to Pine Bluff. At the corner of Barraque and Pine Streets is a plaque.

15. For whom is it dedicated? _______________________________________
(This is the only street in the world that bears this name)

Continue south on Pine for one block. Look at the mural on the east side of the building.

16. What is the Airfield? _______________________
What squadron is commended? _____________________________
(This air field is located a few miles southeast of town and today is the home of the Razorback Wing of the Confederate Air Force).

Walk west on 2nd Avenue to Chestnut Street, then north to Barraque. On the northeast corner observe the plaque.

17. Who was Joseph Bonne? ________________________________

Continue north on Chestnut street to the north side of the last building on your right. Look at the mural on the north wall. This is the Hocker-Arkansas flag mural.

18. How many changes did the Arkansas Flag go through? _________________

Go west through he alley to Walnut Street and the traffic light at the expressway. Be Careful!! Use the traffic light to cross over to Pullen Street. From here, proceed east along the parking lot on the south side of Lake Pine Bluff, to the Bicycle path sigh. With your compass take a reading on the gold dome of the courthouse.

19. What is the bearing of the dome?

Go around the end of the fence and northward along the east segment of the earthen dam to the pumps on the east side of the dam. To the southeast of this point is a radio tower.

20. What is the compass bearing of the tower? ____________________________

21. What kind of trees grow north of the pumps? ___________________________

Continue north until the dam takes a westerly turn. At the center of the dam, at the turn, take another compass bearing on the same radio tower.

22. What is the bearing of the tower? __________________________________

23.What is the compass bearing along the east-west portion of the dam? _________________

Travel west along the dam until it takes a slight bend to the left.
24. To the southeast, what is the bearing on the tallest tower? __________________________

25. What is the bearing the tallest of the two smoke stacks to the south? _________________

Continue until you reach the spillway, then walk across it.

26. How many gates are on the spillway? _____________________
The covered marker north of the spillway, in the parking lot, commemorates the dedication of Lake Pine Bluff.

27. What year was the lake dedicated? ________________

28. Who was the consulting engineer? _______________________________
(Scouter and Scoutmaster in Pine Bluff for many years)

Follow the road out of the parking lot to Highway 79. Travel south on 79, staying on the east side of the highway, till you reach the overpass.

29. What is the clearance of the walkway? _______________________

Cross over the the west side of the highway by the walkway. Continue south along the west side of Highway 79.

30. What is the name of the college you are passing? __________________________

Continue south to the first street on the right after the college.

31. Who is the fine arts building named for? _____________________________

Continue south about 8 blocks to Pullen Street, turn left to the entrance of St. Joseph’s Cemetery. Enter the cemetery gate, walk north 18 paces from the gate, turn right and face the grave marker to the east.

32. Who is buried here? ________________________________________

33. What tribe was he the chief of? __________________________________

34. What year did he die? ________________________

35. How old did he live to be? __________________________

36. What is the epitaph on the monument? ___________________________________________

Retrace your steps out of the cemetery, to the traffic light at Highway 79 at Pullen Street. Walk west on Pullen Street to the entrance to Bellwood Cemetery. Enter the Cemetery and walk north to the monument with a man’s statue on top.

37. Who is the man whose statue on top of the monument?_______________________________
38. Who erected the monument? _____________________________________________

39. What is the inscription on the monument describing the man? ___________________________

Travel west from this monument until you reach a stone-walled plot higher than the surrounding plots. It has a marker with the name Altheimer.

40. On the Altheimer plot, what is the name of the person who was a “brave soldier”? ___________

Continue west until you reach the first lane of the west side road, turn left, walk south and turn left on the third street. Walk east until you reach two columns on the right. Between the columns is a step inscribed “Daughters of the Confederacy”.

41. To whom is the monument erected? __________________________

Turn right at the next cross road and return to Pullen Street. Return to Highway 79. Travel east one long block and two short blocks to Mulberry Street. Turn south and take the overpass to the south side of Highway 65 to 2nd Street. Turn east on 2nd Street and go to Cherry Street. Go north one block to Barraque Street. Go east three blocks. At 716 West Barraque, look at the reconstructed home of Ben Person, the Archery Manufacturer. As you walk east, count the brick columns.

42. How many brick columns line the 700 block? ______________________________

Look at the Trulock and Gould house at 704 W. Barraque. It was built in 1876. Turn south on Beech Street, and go one block to 2nd Street. Turn right on 2nd. At 717 W. 2nd is the Roth Rosewing House, next is the Trulock Cook House. On the southwest corner of 2nd and Oak Streets is a marker about the Branch Normal School and the AM&N College. This is the original site of the Branch Normal School that merged with the college. Later it became the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

43. When was the school at this site created? _____________________

44. When did it merge with U of A? _________________

45. What does AM&N stand for? _________________________________________________

Proceed one block south on Oak Street to 3rd. See the marker at the the corner of 3rd and Oak at the Trinity Episcopal Church.

46. What year was the church built? ___________________
(previously in stone above door)

47. On the northwest corner, what is the name of the home? _________________________

Travel east on 4th to the southwest corner of 4th and Elm. You are now in front of the home of Martha Mitchell, wife of John Mitchell - Attorney General for President Nixon.
Travel west one block back to Poplar Street, south four blocks to 8th Street. Turn left on 8th Street, go east 2 1/2 blocks to the Bell Telephone Building. On the south side of the building is a sun dial made by the late Ralph Bonar of Pine Bluff.

48. What time is it by the sun dial?  _____________  (correct the time for daylight savings)

Continue east one block to 8th and Laurel, then south across the Pine Bluff High School parking lot, to 15th and Laurel Streets to the Lakeside Methodist Church. The area of Pine Bluff which you just traveled used to be a lake. Go to the front of the church, facing Olive Street.

49. How many round windows are on the east side of the church? ___________________

Proceed east on 15th Street to Main Street. Go north on Main to 9th Street, turn east on 9th. On the north-facing wall of the building just south of you is the mural commemorating the economic main stay of Pine Bluff for many years, the Cotton Belt Railroad. Walk up the Civic Center steps, go to the east side of the building. This is the entrance to the public library. Enter the library and ask to see Saracen’s bow and arrows. There are also a few other artifacts of interest.
    The Oriental Garden in the center of the Civic Center is a gift from Pine Bluff’s sister city, Iwai, Japan.

50. How long did it take you to complete this trail? ______________________

Return to the fire department to have your trail cards validated.

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If you have more time, you might like to visit the Cotton Belt Historical Railroad Museum. It is worth your time, even if you have to make a return visit. It is located on East 2nd Street on your right just past the the “s” turn under the highway overpass.

Another point of interest is the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, located in the Pine Bluff Convention Center, just east of the civic center.

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