Dwight Mission was founded at the request of Western Cherokee Chief Tahlonteskee in 1818. Tahlonteskee expressed to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), an extension of the Presbyterian Church, the desire for a mission school to educate the Western Cherokees. The Western Principal Chief knew if his people were to weather the ensuing changes before them it was imperative they be educated. And Dwight Mission became the first mission west of the Mississippi River to serve the Cherokee people.
The mission was to be located in the newly created Territory of Arkansas which in part became the Cherokee Reserve as part of the Treaty of 1817. The Treaty of 1817 was an agreement between one group of the Cherokee tribe which would give up their lands in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama and in exchange would receive an equal portion of land in Arkansas. This group of Cherokee became known as the “Old Settlers”. The Cherokee Reserve was situated in the northwestern part of the Arkansas Territory between the Arkansas and White Rivers.
On our way back to our fiver we found a little road side produce stand. We pulled in and Dawn grabbed us some new potatoes and okra. It is fresh. Picked from the garden that morning.
Needless to say, for dinner we had new potatoes cooked with a little butter and onion, okra fried until lightly browned and sweet corn cooked in the shuck on the grill. That was the BEST meal we've had in a while.
Today we drove over to Porter and checked out the peach festival. Everything was peachy! They had fresh peaches, peach cobblers, fried peach pies, peach smoothies, peach tea and this list goes on and on. The Porter fire department handed out bowls of ice cream with peaches poured over them. There was a small carnival and a few arts and craft vendors. We didn't stay long. When the temp reached 103 we decided it was time to leave.
Travel Safe Dawn and Denise