Beginning 10 miles northwest of Pine Bluff, Bayou Bartholomew flows 300 miles through 6 Arkansas counties and 2 Louisiana parishes before emptying into the Ouachita River in north Louisiana. Indian mounds dotted its banks. Immigrants traveled it by flatboat and settled in Jefferson County. Although the origin of its name is uncertain, it was known by that name as early as 1786. Baron De Carondelet referred to it by name in a 1795 letter, and Don Carlos Trudeau, surveyor general of the Spanish Province of Louisiana, included it on a 1797 map. A man named Barthelemy is known to have been in the area as early as the 1680's.