Lakeport Plantation Home - Lake Village
In 1831 when Chicot County residents numbered a mere 1,165, Joel Johnson of Kentucky purchased a tract of land southeast of Old River Lake, which is the present-day Lake Chicot. He named the plantation developed there Lakeport after a nearby steamboat landing. The plantation house was built around 1860 and is the last antebellum plantation house still standing in the Arkansas Delta. In 2001, Arkansas State University acquired Lakeport Plantation as a gift from the Sam Angel family of Lake Village. The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council recently awarded ASU two grants totaling $1.24 million that will assist in restoration, archeology and research on Lakeport Plantation Home and one other historic property. Lakeport Plantation Home was also awarded a $320,000 grant as part of the Department of the Interior’s Save America’s Treasure Grants. ASU will use Lakeport Plantation Home and site as a museum, educational classroom and on-site and distance-learning laboratory for ASU students. (Portions of this article were adapted from “Lakeport: The Making of an Arkansas Plantation” by Thomas A. DeBlack.)
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