SPRINGDALE -- U.S. Sen. John Boozman has filed a bill to make the 3,000-mile Butterfield Overland Trail a national historic trail.

The effort began about 16 years ago, but the wagon wheels of federal bureaucracy turn slowly.

"We can be very proud of the fact that we're moving in the right direction," the Arkansas Republican said after a news conference Monday in front of the historic barn at Fitzgerald Station -- which was a stop along the Butterfield Trail near Springdale.

Marilyn Heifner, treasurer of Heritage Trail Partners, said she proposed the national trail idea to Boozman when he was a congressman in 2004.

Boozman filed a bill in 2007 to study the trail's feasibility. It passed in 2009, and the National Park Service completed the study in 2018, approving the Butterfield for national trail status.

"National historic trails are extended trails that follow as closely as possible and practicable the original routes of travel that are of national significance," according to the study.

Full story (subcription required): https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/aug/11/butterfield-overland-trail-heads-toward-historic/