When wide-awake citizens of Arkansas realized that many thousands of their fellows were bound and determined to take some trail to California, they began to advertise with trumpet blasts the advantages of Fort Smith, on the western edge of Arkansas, as the jumping-off place for California by way of Santa Fe. Philanthropy and the wish to be helpful played some part in this; but a thought of the profits to be made in outfitting the emigrants was not altogether out of their minds. The Arkansas Assembly made representations to Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, and he gave out in January, 1849, an official endorsement of the southwestern route as the one best adapted for use as a national road to the far West. Many gold-seekers had planned to get the jump on those traveling over the northern overland route by an early departure down the old Santa Fe Trail, starting from Independence, Missouri, or from Westport Landing. But now, as they read glowing accounts in newspapers at Cincinnati, Memphis and other river towns, they were persuaded to abandon the tried and true road by way of the Cimarron, or by Bent's Fort, for one declared to be five hundred miles shorter and abound­ing in early grass and never-failing water. In addition, the advertisements guaranteed safe arrival at Monterey, California, within sixty days of leaving Fort Smith (below) .
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