Counties, Cities, and Towns

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Entry Category: Counties, Cities, and Towns

Etowah (Mississippi County)

Etowah is a town in Mississippi County. It is located on State Highway 136 about fifteen miles west of Osceola (Mississippi County). The first inhabitants of Mississippi County were Native Americans who established villages and built mounds at various sites around the county. When European explorers first traveled through the area, they found a swamp with many cypress trees. The land under the swamp was very fertile, but no efforts were made to remove the trees and drain the swamp until late in the nineteenth century. One Civil War event took place in the Etowah area, according to a monument that was dedicated in 2010. An expedition of 100 soldiers from the Second Missouri Artillery set out from Osceola on …

Etta (Hot Spring County)

Etta (Hot Spring County) was an unincorporated community located about six miles southwest of Malvern (Hot Spring County) and about two miles northeast of Elmore (Hot Spring County). Formerly a stop on the Iron Mountain Railroad, the community became depopulated in the early twenty-first century, with the land returning to timber production. Early landowners in the area included James Darnell, who obtained a federal land patent for eighty acres in 1881. Mary A. Williams, who was born around 1837 in Georgia, obtained eighty acres in 1882. In the 1880 federal census, a recently widowed Williams appears with her four sons and daughter; her youngest son was only two years old at the time. Her oldest sons, twenty-one-year-old Phillip and fifteen-year-old …

Eudora (Chicot County)

The city of Eudora, in the southeastern corner of Arkansas, was built on land rising twenty-five feet above the surrounding Delta flatlands. It came about as a result of antebellum plantations and an early twentieth-century railroad. Eudora survived the Flood of 1927 because of its elevation. The city calls itself the “Catfish Capital of Arkansas.” Louisiana Purchase through Reconstruction The rich land on which Eudora was established was still only sparsely settled when Arkansas became a state in 1836. A Presbyterian church was built on the ridge in the 1840s, and a Masonic lodge opened at that location in 1848. E. C. James owned 700 acres of Chicot County land, including the ridge; he named his homestead Eudora Plantation for …

Eureka Springs (Carroll County)

Eureka Springs is a northwestern Arkansas tourist town situated in the Ozark Mountains. One of two county seats in Carroll County and home to the legendary healing springs, the city draws a diverse tourist crowd every year and is known for its spas and bathhouses. During the twentieth century, the town attracted an eclectic population, and today it is a mecca for artists, writers, the religious community, and the gay and lesbian community. Prehistory through Early Statehood Paleoindians lived in the Eureka Springs area thousands of years ago. During the Woodland and Archaic periods, residents of the area created projectile points (often described as “arrowheads”) from the chert cobbles they found in gravel bars. By the time of the Louisiana …

Evening Shade (Scott County)

Evening Shade is an unincorporated community in north-central Scott County located along Highway 28 West. The community was established at the base of Poteau Mountain, which played an important role in naming the community. Agriculture has traditionally been important to the area. Prior to European exploration, Evening Shade was a wilderness with native vegetation and numerous species of wildlife, some of which no longer inhabit the area. Early inhabitants were present during the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. There are numerous archaeological sites located along the Poteau River near Evening Shade, and evidence from these sites indicates that the Caddo Indians once lived in the area. Throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French trappers and explorers traveled west …

Evening Shade (Sharp County)

Evening Shade, located on U.S. Highway 167 in northern Arkansas, served as the seat of Sharp County for approximately ninety-five years. The once thriving community saw a slow decline in importance after the seat of government was removed in 1963. Today, it is best known as the setting for the 1990s sitcom Evening Shade. Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood Until about 1850, the small settlement was known as Shanty. It is believed that the present name was derived from the afternoon shade provided by a small stand of tall pine trees overlooking the post office. At least for a short period of time, it was known as Hook Rum. Several versions of a local story say that, in about 1851, …

Everton (Boone County)

Everton is a town in southeastern Boone County on State Highway 206. The town began as a stop on the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad (M&NA) and quickly became an agricultural center for the region. Osage from the north came into the region to hunt and to fish, but what would become Boone County remained sparsely populated until after Arkansas became a state. Some settlers made their homes along Clear Creek in the area that would become Everton. Among those who purchased land deeds were William Ryals in 1849 and James Bradshaw, Seborn Jones, and John Reeves in 1854. No significant events took place in the immediate vicinity during the Civil War, although five deceased Confederate soldiers were interred in …

Fairfield Bay (Van Buren and Cleburne Counties)

Fairfield Bay, located in north-central Arkansas on the north shore of Greers Ferry Lake, was created with the goal of becoming a recreational and retirement resort. Though small in terms of residential population, the number of people who visit each year through the town’s timeshare program is well over 20,000. As of the 2010 census, the combined population of its Van Buren County and Cleburne County portions is 2,338. Before the formation of Greers Ferry Lake in the mid-1960s, the hills of what is now Fairfield Bay were covered with large hardwood trees. Logging of these immense oak trees for lumber, railroad ties, and white oak barrel staves supported the thriving communities of Shirley (Van Buren County), Edgemont (Cleburne County), …

Falcon (Nevada County)

Falcon is an unincorporated community in southern Nevada County. One of the oldest communities in the area, it reached its pinnacle even before the creation of Nevada County. Located about six miles south of Bodcaw (Nevada County), it is also twenty-three miles south of the county seat of Prescott (Nevada County) and sixteen miles southeast of Hope (Hempstead County). The community is centered on the intersection of Arkansas Highways 53 and 355 about one mile north of the Lafayette County line. Many settlers arrived in the area in the 1850s. Early landowners in the area included John Richardson, who received almost forty acres of land in 1850. Elijah Lewis, James Hardwick, and James H. Hardwick jointly received a land patent …

Fallsville (Newton County)

Fallsville is an unincorporated community in Boston Township in the southwestern corner of Newton County. The community was also historically called Loafer’s Glory, a nickname applied to several sites in the broader Appalachian region that were known for being places of meeting and informal discussion; in Arkansas, the community of Morning Star (Searcy County) has also sometimes been known as Loafer’s Glory. Population estimates from various gazetteers, business directories, and newspapers have ranged from ten to 100 at various points in the community’s history. The 1898–1899 R. L. Polk’s Arkansas State Gazetteer and Business Directory listed Fallsville’s population at fifty, with commercial enterprises and services including distillers, a druggist, general stores, two lawyers, a blacksmith, masons, a flour mill, a …

Famous (Pope County)

aka: Mooretown (Pope County)
The Arkansas landscape is dotted with small towns that were at one time area commercial centers. Many, such as the Pope County town of Famous, have long since disappeared. Little remains of this once thriving unincorporated settlement, which was located approximately six miles west of Dover (Pope County) near present-day State Highway 333. By the 1920s, the name had been changed to Mooretown. John Thomas Moore moved his family to the area in the late 1800s, building the first house in what would eventually become Famous. He was also the first merchant, establishing the first general store. In time, the Moore family would dominate the commercial activity in the area. In 1897, a U.S. post office was established in the …

Fargo (Monroe County)

Fargo is a town on U.S. Highway 49 in northern Monroe County, north of Interstate 40. Fargo came into existence due to the railroad industry and later was home to a significant school for African Americans. Various Native American artifacts have been found in Monroe County, indicating that it has been inhabited at least sporadically for centuries. European hunters and trappers had arrived by the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the county itself was established in 1829, several years before Arkansas became a state. The northern part of the county, drained by the Cache River, was largely uninhabited throughout the nineteenth century. The St. Louis Southwestern Railway, known as the Cotton Belt, was constructed across Arkansas from Texarkana (Miller …

Farmington (Washington County)

For more than a century, Farmington, one of the early settlements in northwest Arkansas, was a small village five miles west of Fayetteville (Washington County). The rapid growth of this section of the state has affected the area in and around Farmington profoundly. In 1940, its population was about 200, but as of the 2010 census, 5,974 people resided there. This population expansion mirrors the phenomenal growth of northwest Arkansas in recent years. Territorial Period to Early Statehood In 1828, settlers arrived early in the wide valley that flows west from Fayetteville, and it was truly frontier country. The federal government moved the Cherokee and Osage tribes westward into what is now Oklahoma. They took their wars along with them, …