Corinth (Yell County)

Historical Population as per the U.S. Census:

Corinth is a town in Yell County, located between the cities of Danville (Yell County) and Belleville (Yell County). State Highway 10 is the approximate northern boundary of the town, although some businesses on the highway are just outside its limits. Petit Jean River forms the southern boundary of Corinth.

As is the case for the rest of Yell County, the land that would become Corinth was sparsely populated, first by Native Americans and then by American settlers. The name “Corinth” was attached to the area during the nineteenth century. Corinth was an important city of ancient Greece and was also the location of an early Christian congregation (to which the apostle Paul wrote two epistles that are included in the New Testament). It appears, then, that a Christian congregation or preaching station may have existed at one time in this place. Prior to school consolidation that began early in the twentieth century, Yell County contained seventy-five small school districts, and the school between Danville and Bellville was called Corinth. Moreover, the highway that runs through the town, connecting its homesteads, has been called Corinth Road at least since it was improved for automobile traffic in the early twentieth century.

In the late 1960s, residents of Corinth chose to incorporate as a town, apparently to avoid being annexed by the growing city of Bellville. Incorporation was granted on April 16, 1970; ten years later, the census recorded thirty-eight residents of the town. The population rose to seventy by the 2010 census but dwindled to forty-five by the 2020 census.

Corinth straddles the line that defines two school districts. Some Corinth children attend school in Danville, while others are enrolled in the Western Yell County School District centered in Bellville. Two churches meet in buildings on Highway 10 at Corinth, and Wiser Manufacturing operates a plant on the highway just outside of Corinth. The Danville Municipal Airport is north of Corinth, separated from the city of Danville by the tiny town.

For additional information:
Banks, Wayne. History of Yell County, Arkansas. Van Buren, AR: The Press Argus, 1959.

“Early Schools in Yell County and Map.” Yell County Historical and Genealogical Association Bulletin 8 (April 1983): 14–15.

Yell County Historical and Genealogical Association. Yell County Heritage: A History of Yell County, Arkansas. Bedford, TX: Curtis Media, Inc., 1997.

Steven Teske
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies