Most of the bayous of the Grand Prairie of Arkansas go dry in the summer and are reduced to shallow muddy sloughs, but one of the exceptions is the lower part of La Grue Bayou which is fed by a number of springs none of which is of more renowned than La Grue Springs. Early settlers came here by river -- down the Mississippi from Memphis, up the Arkansas River east of Arkansas Post, then north up the White River to where La Grue Bayou veers off to the northwest to drain the Grand Prairie. Lying on the edge of the Grand Prairie and offering a source of fresh – “disease-free” – water, the springs and the adjoining settlement became a "jumping off" point for settlers looking to avoid the swamps of Arkansas' delta as they made their way west.

The settlement of La Grue Springs lies near the namesake springs which emerge from the steep slope bordering the bayou on the west. The water was reported to have been used for medicinal purposes and was said to be a sure remedy for malaria – albeit first-hand testimonials are lacking. The settlement was short lived -- reaching its peak prior to the civil war and dying quickly after the arrival of the 20th century and the appearance of railroads, large corporate farms and health spas having far better amenities.

As the community began to disappear local rice farmers appealed to the government in the 1920s to assist them in creating a transportation hub at La Grue for warehousing and shipping rice. A proposal was offered by the Corps of Engineers to clean the channel of the bayou from the mouth of the White River to La Grue Springs to allow navigation by large barges and boats that could carry up to 7,000 bushels of rice at a time. As the channel would still be too shallow to allow the rice to be moved to market when it would be harvested in September and October a large warehouse would have to be built where the rice could be stored until the late autumn rains began. And with so much invested in the project those living in La Grue Springs found themselves praying that late summer rains would make the flat prairie roads impassable for trucking their harvests by local railway. Common sense prevailed -- the project never advanced far beyond a being a dream. And La Grue Springs disappeared from the map.

LaGrue Springs resurfaced in Charlie May Simon's schoolbook entitled "Green Grows The Prairie" published in 1956. In the book one of the young boys at the center of story, Jim, decides to visit LaGrue Springs and observe the bottling operation there before embarking on his own bottling business. Cleaning out a spring near his home and buyiing as many old barrels as he could in nearby DeWitt the story follows boy Jim and his horse Trinket as they delivered "Polka Dot Prairie Spring Water" along the prairie roads.

NOTE: The community and springs -- even the post office which was in operation from 1848 to 1853 -- were often referred to as La Grew. This spelling is deemed to be in error. La Grue was taken from French to mean "the crane"