A 1700’s European explorer by the name of Chavet was given funds and permission to explore the “new world” which included the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers. He was engaged to a girl from Paris by the name Adrienne Dumont. When told of his plans, she asked that they be married right away so she could accompany him. Thinking of the hardship and danger on the journey, Chavet refused her request, telling her they would marry when he returned.
Adrienne refused to accept his answer and changed her appearance to apply for a position as a cabin boy, calling herself Jean. She got the job and no one recognized her. The sailors called her Petit Jean, which is French for Little John because she was so small.
The sailors spent the spring and summer in the Arkansas mountains. In the fall, the ship was readied for departure. That night, Petit Jean became ill with a sickness that was strange to Chavet and his sailors. It was marked with fever, convulsions, delirium, and finally coma. During the illness, Petit Jean's identity was, of course, discovered. She requested that if she died, to be carried back to the mountaintop that she had spent her last days on, and be buried at a spot overlooking the river below.
Petit Jean is a beautiful super clean state park with waterfalls, a lake and river to explore.
We hiked to rock house cave. There are some very faded and sporadic remnants of Indian petroglyphs. What is sad is that people can’t seem to resist the urge to carve their initials in the walls. So sad.
Nicknamed turtle rocks, these are formed by water running over the sandstone rocks but not impacting the iron and other minerals in the formation.
All of the buildings, bridges and pavilions are made from huge blocks of rock from the area.
So many dogwoods!
We must be here at the peak of spring pollen. We left the windows open and the inside it the camper was covered along with every other surface outside.
