Little Arkansas

Rock Springs, on the Old Kilgore Highway four miles south of Gladewater in northwestern Gregg County, was established by settlers from Arkansas in the late 1840s and was originally known as Little Arkansas. In 1849 other settlers from Tennessee built a pay school house. The building, which was used for church and Grange meetings as well as political rallies, is the oldest reliably dated building in the county. The school house was named Rock Springs for a nearby stream at a rocky ledge, and the community later adopted the name. The one-teacher school continued in operation until the 1930s when it was consolidated with Gladewater school. A state historical marker was placed at the site in 1966. In the 1990s Rock Springs was a dispersed community. A cemetery is adjacent to the school house.