The Military Road, following part of the route of the old Southwest Trail, passed through the heart of Hot Spring County and the Midway community. Now known as Midway Road, this primitive pathway served as a major thoroughfare in Arkansas's early days, carrying thousands of pioneers, soldiers, and people from all walks of life across Arkansas to Texas and the Southwest. During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate troops used the road, and Confederates retreated down it after Little Rock fell in September 1863 while the Union Army traveled it during the Camden Expedition. Midway appeared on many early maps of Arkansas as a point midway between Rockport and Arkadelphia on the Ouachita River and on the Military Road, making it a convenient stopping point for travelers in antebellum Arkansas. American explorers William Dunbar and George Hunter noted nearby Watermelon Island in 1804. The island was later named for pioneer settler Daniel Morrison, who arrived in the 1830s, amassed large landholdings in the area, and farmed property along and between the Ouachita River and the Military Road. Morrison’s smokehouse still stands near Midway Road and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.