Lakeport Plantation research continues

The only remaining plantation house in Arkansas that faces the Mississippi River is undergoing ongoing historical research. The site, located in Chicot County, has operated as a museum for nearly two decades and draws thousands of visitors annually.

Joel Johnson arrived in the area in 1831 after selling his property in Scott County, Kentucky. He established a cotton plantation in Chicot County and expanded his holdings over the following years. By the time of his death in 1846, he owned approximately 95 enslaved people. His son, Lycurgus Johnson, inherited the bulk of the estate.

Lycurgus Johnson expanded the operation during the 1850s when cotton prices rose. He controlled more than 4,400 acres and 155 enslaved people. Late in that decade, he began construction of the current structure, a Greek Revival style home situated near a river oxbow. The building was named for a local steamboat landing and originally offered a clear view of the river from its front porch. Today, a large earthen levee blocks that view, though cotton fields still surround the property.

The house, which features 17 rooms and covers about 8,000 square feet, was built on an elevation to mitigate flood risk. Construction finished just before the Civil War began. Arkansas joined the Confederacy on May 6, 1861. Confederate leaders believed European textile industries would force Britain and France to support the South. Those nations instead sourced cotton from Egypt, leaving the Confederacy isolated.

Union forces moved to control the Mississippi River to divide the South. They captured New Orleans and parts of western Tennessee. The fall of Vicksburg and Helena on July 4, 1863, gave the Union command of the river. This strategic victory plunged the region into economic turmoil. Confederate and Union armies foraged in the county, and partisan bands took supplies from residents. Union soldiers seized all mules, horses, and cattle from the Lakeport plantation in 1863 or 1864.

Following the war, Lycurgus Johnson retained his former enslaved people as workers. The plantation produced about 600 bales of cotton annually by 1870, which was half its pre-war output but remained profitable. The family held the property until 1927, when Sam Epstein, a Russian immigrant, purchased it for $30,000. The Epstein family expanded the holdings to 13,000 acres. The house sat abandoned for more than 30 years before Epstein's grandson, Sam Epstein Angel, donated it to Arkansas State University in 2001.

Epstein Angel made the decision after visiting the Hemmingway-Pfeiffer House in Piggott and seeing its successful restoration. The university reopened the Lakeport plantation to the public in 2007. Museum Director Ruth O'Loughlin stated that active research is still occurring at the site. She noted that historians have not yet identified the names of everyone who was enslaved there.