Hempstead County and Washington Arkansas was a popular spot where famous Texas such as Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie may have lingered. Hope Arkansas is close to Fulton where the Fulton's Ferry on the Red River was located. Fulton's Ferry was the northern port-of-entry into Texas from Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas from 1800 until about 1840. A military road was in used fromFort Smith to Fort Towson on the Red River was in use from 1800 until 1860s. That road was wild and unprotected form outlaws and savages and was of little use except to the army. In 1819, a river passage from New Orleans came as far at Pecan Point and Jonesboro,Texas on the Red River. Jonesboro was the earliest Anglo settlement in Texas.

Other roads such as the Texas Immigrant Road from Independence Missouri, to Fort Scott Kansas, to Fort Gibson, I.T. with a terminus at Coffee's Trading Post on the Red River was established. The Butterfield Overland Mail Route followed a old military road from Fort Smith Arkansas to Coffee's Trading Post on the Red River. By 1850, the Military Road (I-35) from Coffee's Trading Post to Austin became popular to immigrants coming into Texas.

From 1812 to 1820, the Texas Trace from Little Rock and Memphis was linked to Trammel's Trace on the Texas side of the Red River at Fulton's Ferry. Trammel's Trace was established in 1825 from Fulton's Ferry to Nacogdoches,Texas. El Camino Real (The Royal Highway) from a Mexican garrison at Nacogdoches, through San Antonio de Bexar and on to the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) had been established in the mid-1700s by the Mexican government.