Native Americans lived in great numbers along the White River, also called Eau Blanche, when the first French traders ascended the river to the area later noted on early maps as McNulty's Bluff, Pigeon Roost Township, Pulaski County. Disease, insects, and dense growths of timber and cane prevented early settlement along the river. The settlement that evolved into Des Arc began with a partnership between James Erwin and William Scroggs to build a trading post on the lower part of McNulty's Bluff in 1845, the same year Prairie County was established from Pulaski County. In 1848, James Erwin and George Watkins had Israll Moore survey the area for a town, and Des Arc was incorporated in 1854.