About Pea Ridge National Military Park
Pea Ridge National Military Park preserves the Ozark landscape where Union and Confederate armies fought the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7–8, 1862. The Union victory helped secure Missouri and made the battlefield one of the most consequential Civil War sites in the Trans-Mississippi West. The park also contains older transportation corridors tied to the Telegraph/Military Road and a section of the Trail of Tears, giving the landscape significance beyond the battle itself.
Visitors can begin at the visitor center museum and orientation film, then follow the 7-mile, 10-stop tour road through key parts of the battlefield, including the Elkhorn Tavern area. Hiking and horse trails offer a slower way to experience the terrain and understand how ridges, fields, and roads shaped the fighting. Its unusually intact battlefield setting makes Pea Ridge especially valuable for travelers who want to connect military history to the actual ground on which events unfolded.
