Pieces of heavy earth moving equipment are being gathered on the plot of ground on the southeast corner of campus, readying for the next phase of UALR’s long-term Master Plan to make Coleman Creek a focal point of campus.

Dave Millay, UALR’s director of the Physical Plant, said design work is completed and site preparation is about to commence on the restoration phase on the Trail of Tears Park. By spring, the five-acre plot of what was concrete, asphalt, old restaurants, and a bowling alley will be well on the way to restoration to its natural state with native trees, rocks and grasses.

UALR’s partners – in what Mayor Mark Stodola said was the biggest “de-urbanization” project in Little Rock – include Audubon Arkansas, the Chamberlin Family Foundation FTN Associates, Design Consultants Inc., among the many donors to the project. The $650,000 donor-financed effort will restore the Trail of Tears Park site to its natural state and return the landscape similar to what members of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations found when they stopped for water at the creek during the forced migration known as the Trail of Tears.

Dan Littlefield, director of UALR’s Sequoyah Research Center, said the new park will include footpaths creating a “circle of life’’ in which three historical markers will be placed to identify the creek as a stop-over along the foot, horse, and wagon path known as the old Southwest Trail – now Asher Avenue.

The undertaking is the first part of the Coleman Creek Greenway Project, described in UALR’s Master Plan to create a 47-acre greenway reaching the full length of campus with lush vegetation, bicycle and walking trails, benches, and other amenities that complement the natural settings along the creek.

The restoration project will provide an outdoor laboratory for biologists, earth scientists, and hydrologists for teaching and research activities and will unite the campus and tie Coleman Creek to a regional open space system that includes the Fourche Creek Wetlands and War Memorial Park.