- The Fire Prairie Line and Osage Line entries redirect here.
Also known as the Osage Treaty, the Treaty of Fort Clark — between the Osage Nation and the United States — was signed November 10, 1808, at what was then called Fort Clark on the Missouri River.
Per the treaty, the Osage Nation ceded its land east of a line that ran due south from Fort Clark to the Arkansas River. That line runs along the meridian of 94°11’35.1″W and through present-day Fayetteville very closely along the present-day line of Porter Road and across the top of Markham Hill.
This line became known as the Osage Line and the Fire Prairie Line.
In exchange, the Great Osage Nation would receive $800 and the Little Osage Nation would receive $400.
The treaty read: “Beginning at fort Clark, on the Missouri, five miles above Fire Prairie, and running thence a due south course to the river Arkansas, and down the same to the Mississippi; hereby ceding and relinquishing forever to the United States, all the lands which lie east of the said line, and north of the southwardly bank of the said river Arkansas, and all lands situated northwardly of the river Missouri. And we do further cede and relinquish to the United States forever, a tract of two leagues square, to embrace fort Clark, and to be laid off in such manner as the President of the United States shall think proper.”
Later, the Osage Line also became the eastern boundary of Lovely County when it was created in 1827.