A plaque in Rockport states that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the location in 1541, although current historians are less certain about the exact route that de Soto and his group traveled while west of the Mississippi River.

The Hunter-Dunbar Expedition struggled to navigate the rapids here on December 3, 1804, recording their experience in a travel diary.

During the 1830s, the development of the Military Road (also called the Southwest Trail) used the boulders as a ford to cross the river.

Its most famous citizen was politician Lorenzo Gibson, who built a house on a bluff overlooking the river and who became, in 1837, Rockport's first postmaster.

Other early settlers were Colonel A. R. Givens, Henry Miller, and Samuel Emerson, who is credited with laying out the city and opening its first hotel.

A Methodist church was meeting in a private home as early as 1815; its first building, a log structure, was erected in 1836.

The Hot Spring County Hornets were the first of several military units to form in Rockport.

Federal forces under General Frederick Steele camped near the nearly abandoned city, building a pontoon bridge to cross the river on the following day.

That same year, 1873, a major fire devastated Rockport, destroying the county courthouse among other structures.

The bridge was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, only to be removed after it was damaged by storms and flooding in 1987 and 1990.

After morning events in Hot Springs and lunch with businessman Harvey Couch, the president and his party attended a service at the Methodist church in Rockport, which was followed by a parade.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Rockport has a total area of 3.4 square miles (8.8 km2), all land.