Entries - Entry Type: Place - Starting with B

Bethel Heights (Benton County)

Bethel Heights was a city in southern Benton County, situated on Business Highway 71 between Lowell (Benton County) and Springdale (Washington and Benton counties) just east of Interstate 49. Although the community existed since the 1870s, it was not incorporated until 1967. In 2020, it was annexed by Springdale following a vote in both communities. Benton County had long been inhabited before European exploration and before the Louisiana Purchase added the area to the United States. Osage from the north hunted in Benton County even after the Louisiana Purchase, until a treaty with the U.S. government moved the tribe west to what is now Oklahoma. The first white settler to claim land in the area that would become Bethel Heights …

Bethesda (Independence County)

Although there were settlers in what became Bethesda (it was originally called Washington) in the early days of statehood, the community was officially established with the opening of a post office in 1888. The name of the community is believed to have been derived from the biblical Bethesda healing pool in Jerusalem, the word meaning “house of grace” or “house of mercy.” Bethesda is located along Highway 106, about three miles south-southeast of Cushman (Independence County) and about eight miles west-northwest of the county seat of Batesville (Independence County). The White River is about four miles to the south, where Lock and Dam No. 2 is located. The Union Pacific Railroad follows the White River bank south of Bethesda. The …

Big Buffalo Valley Historic District

aka: Boxley Valley Historic District

Located in Newton County near Ponca (Newton County), the Big Buffalo Valley Historic District (also known as the Boxley Valley Historic District) includes a number of historic structures dating between 1879 and 1930. Also included in the district are a number of archeological sites representing prehistoric peoples. The sites in the district are scattered across the entire valley, which measures more than 8,000 acres. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 29, 1987, with the original application amended on November 7, 1990. When created in 1987, the district included about 250 structures. Of the fifty residential structures in the district, only about twenty were occupied at that time. Structures included in the district fall …

Big Flat (Baxter and Searcy Counties)

  Big Flat is a town on State Highway 14, mostly in southern Baxter County but straddling the Searcy County line. It is just outside the Ozark National Forest. One of the earliest settlements of northern Arkansas, Big Flat long flourished because it was isolated from other settlements by the hills and forests of the region. The town did not incorporate, though, until 1939. Big Flat was named for a plateau in the Leatherwood Mountains of the Ozark Mountain range. For thousands of years, the area was visited by hunters, fishers, and gatherers of food; the Osage came down from what now is Missouri to collect food to bring back to their homes in the north. White settlers began to …

Big Fork (Polk County)

aka: Bigfork

Big Fork is an unincorporated community in the Ouachita Mountains of Polk County at an elevation of 308 m (1,020 ft.). It is located on Arkansas Highway 8, about 29 km (18 mi.) east of Mena (Polk County). After 1820, a large westward expansion brought settlers to Arkansas, and the Ouachita Mountains attracted many people from northern Georgia to Big Fork. Land in western Arkansas was fairly inexpensive and easy to obtain, and an early settler did not have to pay taxes for five years on land purchased. There were many pioneer families who migrated from Georgia to Big Fork, including the Abernathy, Bates, Beck, Dilbeck, Edwards, Goss, Smith, Turner, and Vandivier families. Some early families of Big Fork also …

Big Island

aka: Montgomery Island

Big Island in Desha County was once the largest island in the continental United States. It is bordered on the east by the Mississippi River. The northern boundary is formed by the White River and the new channel of the Arkansas River, and the western and southern boundaries are formed by the old channel of the Arkansas River. The island is indicated on some maps as “Big Island,” while others—including U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maps—show it as “Montgomery Island,” named after William Montgomery, a prominent early settler in the area. Big Island is about eleven miles long and seven miles wide. However, the meanderings of the three rivers have caused many changes in the appearance of the island over the …

Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge is one of the oldest inland national wildlife refuges. This 11,038-acre area is located in northeast Arkansas outside of Manila (Mississippi County), eighteen miles west of the Mississippi River. The refuge is one of over 540 national wildlife refuges administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and is an important link for birds using the Mississippi migration corridor. The area was a free-flowing river system until the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811–1812 shifted the land to its current environment of swamps and lake. The major habitat types of the refuge are bottomland hardwood forest, wooded swampland, and open water. These natural habitats support a wide variety of mammal, bird, and fish species. There …

Big Rock

Big Rock is the name now given to a 200-foot bluff located on the north bank of the Arkansas River in North Little Rock (Pulaski County). It is the first major outcrop of rock along the river, 121 miles upstream from the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers and about two miles upstream from a smaller outcrop known as the Little Rock, where the capital city of Arkansas developed. The first European to record the bluffs was French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe on April 9, 1722, when he took possession in the name of the French king, Louis XIV. His journal records that he named it “Le Rocher Français” (“French Rock”) and described it as having three …

Big Springs (Stone County)

Big Springs is located in Sylamore Township on Big Springs Road just off Highway 66 (West Main Street) about a mile and a half northwest of Newnata (Stone County) and four miles northeast of Timbo (Stone County). The county seat, Mountain View, is about seven and a half miles east via West Main Street. The community received its name from a large spring where the early settlers built their cabins. The spring, a church, a store, the nearby Avey family home place and barn, and Big Springs Cemetery on the hill made up the main part of the Big Springs community. The Avey family had a home atop the hill above the spring. They got their water by attaching a …

Bigelow (Perry County)

Bigelow is located in the eastern part of Perry County, near the confluence of the Fourche La Fave and Arkansas rivers. The town’s past is tied to the lumber industry, and it has seen its population surge and fall with the state of the local lumber economy. An early settler in the area was Gustave Klingelhoeffer, a German immigrant who came to Arkansas in the early 1830s and eventually settled in Perry County, first near the county seat of Perryville and then later near the mouth of the Fourche La Fave River. Klingelhoeffer featured prominently in the stories of Friedrich Gerstäcker, a German writer who traveled through Perry County and visited the Klingelhoeffer home. In 1880, an application to establish …

Biggers (Randolph County)

Located on the Current River near the Cherokee Bay in the southeastern Randolph County lowlands, the town of Biggers developed around 1900. While scattered settlements may have been present in the region from 1815 to 1830, the first major development near the modern site of Biggers was the plantation of Thomas Drew, who later served as the governor of Arkansas. Drew received the land from Dr. Ransom Bettis upon Drew’s marriage to Bettis’s daughter Cinderella; he developed the land and had amassed around twenty slaves by 1832. Bettis also continued to own land near the future Biggers site. In 1889, B. F. Bigger, the namesake for the town, bought land, established a ferry crossing over the Current River, and built a …

Billstown (Pike County)

Billstown is a small community about six miles southwest of Delight (Pike County) and ten miles southeast of Murfreesboro (Pike County). It is also known as Bills. The first settlers in the area were William Canatser and Thomas Titus, who obtained forty acres in federal land patents in 1858. As more settlers moved into the area, a school named Pleasant Hill was established by 1895. Later schools included Chigger Hill and Baulding Branch. Pleasant Hill school was also used for church services, and Methodist and Church of Christ congregations were organized, both later constructing buildings. John Hipp, who obtained eighty acres in 1885, donated the land for the Pleasant Hill school and a cemetery. The town reached its peak in …

Bingen (Hempstead County)

An unincorporated community in Mine Creek Township, Bingen (Hempstead County) is located about four miles northeast of Nashville (Howard County) and about twenty-seven miles northwest of Hope (Hempstead County). The growth and early history of the community are closely tied to Dr. J. R. Wolff.   The original name of the community was Ozan, not to be confused with the town of the same name located about nine miles to the southeast. A post office opened in the community in 1852. A name change was suggested by South Carolina native Wolff, who moved to the area around 1859. Wolff’s grandfather was a native of Germany, inspiring the community to be named around 1881 for Bingen am Rhein, located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Trained as a physician, Wolff established a medical practice in Bingen but quickly branched out into other businesses.  In 1889, the community included a number of businesses, all owned by Wolff, such as a general …

Birdsong (Mississippi County)

  Located in the extreme southwestern corner of Mississippi County, Birdsong is an African American community that gained national recognition in 1935 due to the plight of sharecroppers in northeastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri. There, local planters and sheriff deputies threatened the life of Norman Thomas, leader of the Socialist Party, forcing him out of town after dispersing a crowd of some 500 men, women, and children. Birdsong is located in the Mississippi River Delta; at 220 feet above sea level, Birdsong at its founding was in a swamp. The community is about eleven miles from the Mississippi River on the east. To the west, about four miles away, is the Tyronza River, with Right Hand Slough (Little River) and the St. Francis …

Biscoe (Prairie County)

aka: Fredonia (Prairie County)

Biscoe, also known as Fredonia, is located on Surrounded Hill between the White River and the Cache River in eastern Prairie County. It is on U.S. Highway 70 a few miles east of DeValls Bluff (Prairie County). Surrounded Hill was surveyed by the federal government in 1849. Edwin Burr was the first settler to claim title to the land, registering his deed in Batesville (Independence County) in 1853. The area remained relatively unpopulated through the Civil War but gained significance with construction of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad, which was completed through the Surrounded Hill area in 1871. A depot was built on flat land near the hill, and a post office was established in 1872 with the name …

Bismarck (Hot Spring County)

Bismarck is an unincorporated community located in western Hot Spring County at the intersection of Arkansas Highways 7 and 84. Near DeGray Lake, the community serves visitors to the lake as well as serving as a bedroom community for Hot Springs (Garland County) and Arkadelphia (Clark County). DeGray Lake Resort State Park is located in the community. The first settlers in the area began to obtain land patents just before the Civil War. Neal McDonald obtained 240 acres on July 1, 1859, including the area where Bismarck is now centered. At this time, the area was part of Clark County. Several other settlers obtained patents on April 2, 1860, including Jonathan Fulton, Edward Howerton, Caleb Killian, and Elisha Williams. These …

Black Fork (Scott County)

Black Fork is an unincorporated community located in southwestern Scott County, just north of Black Fork Mountain. Black Fork was named after a creek—supposedly with dark, murky water—that flows through the area. Black Fork Creek is a distributary of the Fourche La Fave River and a tributary of the Poteau River. The agriculture and timber industries have traditionally been important in Black Fork. Archaeological findings have provided evidence of early inhabitants dating to the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. Further archaeological evidence has indicated that people of the Caddo tribe inhabited the area. During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French hunters and tradesmen traveled west from the Arkansas Post exploring portions of western Arkansas. Several rivers that flow …

Black Fork Mountain Wilderness

The Black Fork Mountain Wilderness is located in the Ouachita National Forest in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. At an elevation of 2,403 feet, the east-west-oriented Black Fork Mountain, formed by a geologic uplift, features rock screes, or flows. The large rock flows, sometimes called “glaciers,” and sandstone bluffs stand above a forest dominated by oak and shortleaf pine. The U.S. Congress designated 13,139 acres as the Black Fork Mountain Wilderness in 1984. Managed by the U.S. Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and shared by Oklahoma and Arkansas (Arkansas has approximately 8,350 acres, while Oklahoma has approximately 4,789 acres), this area contains the thirteen-mile-long rugged ridge of Black Fork Mountain. In both states, the ridge rises to …

Black Oak (Craighead County)

The northeast Arkansas town of Black Oak, one of three Arkansas communities so named, is located in Craighead County on State Highway 18 about seventeen miles east of Jonesboro (Craighead County). Once a thriving timber town, it now exists as a small farming community surrounded by fertile farm land. Black Oak is part of the area known as Buffalo Island. The town gained international attention in the 1970s when a local boy formed and fronted the successful Southern rock group Black Oak Arkansas. In the late 1800s, the land surrounding present-day Black Oak was low lying and often under water, hampering settlement. Those who did come to the area settled on a rise in the timber-covered flat lands called Black Oak …

Black Rock (Lawrence County)

The city of Black Rock in Lawrence County is situated on the Black River at the edge of the Ozark Mountains. It reportedly takes its name from black rocks in the area. The city was a boomtown, rising due to the development of railroads and timber interests, and it was later sustained by the pearling industry. Black Rock consisted of only a few houses and some cleared farmland prior to the 1882 construction of the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad through the area. Immediately, the area was transformed into a boomtown as lumber interests moved in to take advantage of the offerings of the Ozark Mountains. General stores were quickly established, and a sawmill was built on the …

Black Springs (Montgomery County)

Black Springs is a town on State Highway 8 in Montgomery County. Surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest, Black Springs had the potential to be one of the larger communities in the county until the planned railroad failed to be built through the town. Members of the Caddo Nation were living along the Caddo River when white settlers first arrived in the area. The springs for which the town was named were surrounded by black rocks—perhaps an ore of manganese or iron, or both. Also, a family named Black camped by the springs for a while. Either may have been the source of the name. A road connecting Hot Springs (Garland County) to Dallas (Polk County) ran east and west …

Blackfish Lake Ferry Site

The Blackfish Lake Ferry Site marks the location where a ferry was established in 1826 to allow travelers on the Memphis to Little Rock Road to cross Blackfish Lake in eastern St. Francis County. Surveyors hired to lay out a route for the proposed Memphis to Little Rock Road noted that Blackfish Lake was among the obstacles to be overcome in rugged eastern Arkansas. When they reported to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun on February 12, 1825, that they had selected the best possible route through eastern Arkansas, they included a description of Blackfish Lake east of Crowley’s Ridge and a recommendation that a ferry be established to cross it: “Blackfish—this stream has been considered the great obstacle in the …

Blackton (Monroe County)

Little remains of the town of Blackton, but the area is significant as an important farming region and as the location of two national historic sites. Blackton is two and a half miles northwest of the intersection of Monroe, Phillips, and Lee counties. This intersection also marks the established beginning point to survey lands of the Louisiana Purchase. The beginning point was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1993. The site became the location of the Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park. Also near Blackton was the Palmer House. This grand brick structure built in 1873 by John C. Palmer was on the National Register of Historic Places prior to burning down in 2013. Palmer was a farmer, lawyer, and …

Blackwell (Conway County)

The Conway County community of Blackwell was organized in 1872 when the area was designated as a railway station by the newly developed Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. The stop was designated as Blackville Station and was primarily intended as an agricultural loading site. The area surrounding Blackwell is made up of Arkansas River bottomland that is among the most productive farmland in the state. In 1878, the area warranted a post office, and a major disagreement ensured regarding the name for the community. Station stops along the railway were often named for someone employed by the railroad and had little to do with local geography or customs. Eventually, the community settled on the Blackwell name, although the record does not …

Blakely (Garland County)

The small community of Blakely originated as a logging camp of the Dierks Lumber and Coal Company. Named for Blakely Mountain and Blakely Creek in the Ouachita Mountains, the camp moved twice before reaching its permanent location just west of Highway 7 near Jessieville (Garland County). Blakely remains as a tangible reminder of the Dierks company’s legacy in Garland County. Dierks Brothers Company was founded in the 1880s by Hans, Herman, Peter, and Henry Dierks, sons of German immigrant Peter Henry Dierks. In 1895, the company became Dierks Lumber and Coal Company, and the company owned and operated numerous lumber yards in Iowa and Nebraska. In 1900, the Dierks brothers made their first purchase in Arkansas, acquiring a mill in …

Blanchard Springs Caverns

Blanchard Springs Caverns (BSC) is a magnificent limestone cave system starting more than 200 feet underground in the Sylamore Ranger District of the Ozark–St. Francis National Forest, fifteen miles northwest of Mountain View (Stone County). The only cave administered by the U.S. Forest Service, it is considered one of the most beautiful in the country. Three guided tours through the caves are open to the public: the Dripstone Trail (open all year), the Discovery Trail (open during the summer), and the Wild Cave (open by special reservation). The limestone rock from which the cave developed was formed by fossilized sediment from sea creatures at the bottom of an ancient inland sea estimated to exist about 350–500 million years ago. When …

Bland (Saline County)

Bland is an unincorporated populated place in Union Township of Saline County. It is located near the intersection of Arkansas Highway 298 and Steele Bridge Road, approximately ten miles northwest of Benton (Saline County) and seven miles southeast of Paron (Saline County). A post office was established in 1846 and named in honor of Abel Bland, who along with the Moses and Jesse Bland families, settled in Union Township by 1833. Other early settlers were Aaron Bolt, Samuel T. Henderson, Jesse James, Andrew McAllester, and Hugh Rowan, all residing in the area by 1840. After the first settlers arrived, and for decades afterward, farming, hunting, and trapping were the primary endeavors. While there were a few slave-owning yeoman farmers, most …

Blansett (Scott County)

Blansett is an unincorporated community in west-central Scott County. It was established in 1877 along the Black Fork of the Fourche La Fave River, which flows west through the Ouachita National Forest. The small community is surrounded mostly by forest, with some areas containing pastures. Evidence from the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods has been found throughout the area. The Caddo tribe once had a strong presence throughout Scott County, especially along prominent bodies of water. Numerous archaeological mounds have been discovered along waterways throughout the area, including Black Fork Creek. There is little evidence of early European exploration around Blansett. However, it is likely that French trappers and explorers traversed the rivers and creeks around Blansett in the late …

Blevins (Hempstead County)

  Blevins is a second-class city located in the northeastern corner of Hempstead County on U.S. Highway 371. Overshadowed in significance by Washington (Hempstead County) and Hope (Hempstead County), Blevins has been overlooked in most historical studies. Unlike many similar small communities, it has survived into the twenty-first century. The first courthouse of Hempstead County was established two miles south of the current location of Blevins. The county government met in 1819 in the log house of John English, built on the bank of Marlbrook Creek. It continued to meet there until 1824, when a courthouse was completed in Washington. Around 1837, Hugh A. Blevins acquired several plats of land in northeastern Hempstead County; Hugh and Sarah Blevins had eleven …

Blue Ball (Scott County)

Blue Ball is an unincorporated community in eastern Scott County located on Highway 80. Blue Ball was established in 1873 along Dutch Creek. Blue Ball’s name originated from resident Salina Millard, who awoke on a cold morning and noticed how the mountain directly in front of her house looked like a large blue ball. The agriculture and timber industries have contributed to the economy and way of life in Blue Ball. Prior to European exploration, the area surrounding Blue Ball was a wilderness. Several species of wildlife that no longer inhabit the area, such as elk and buffalo, were present throughout the region. Numerous archaeological sites and burial mounds are located along the banks of prominent waterways such as Dutch Creek. Archaeological findings have provided evidence of early …

Blue Eye (Carroll County)

The town of Blue Eye in Carroll County has two distinctions: it is the northernmost community in Arkansas and also has the smallest population of any incorporated community in Arkansas. Like Texarkana (Miller County) and Junction City (Union County), Blue Eye is actually made up of two communities straddling a state line. At the time of the 2020 census, on the Arkansas side, Blue Eye was a town with forty-six residents, and, in Missouri, it was a village with 289 residents. A highway called the Wilderness Road ran through the area before the Civil War. The Butler, Pitman, Craven, and Rhodes families lived along the road, and the region along the state line was known as Butler’s Barrens. During the …

Blue Mountain (Logan County)

Blue Mountain is a town on State Highway 10 in Logan County. It is roughly halfway between Havana (Yell County) and Magazine (Logan County). The town was intended to be a resort community when it was planned in 1900; however, it has remained a quiet residential community in the valley between the Ozark and Ouachita mountains. The town derives its name from a spur of Magazine Mountain, the highest point in the state of Arkansas. One of the first white settlers in the area was Thomas Ryles, who acquired a land patent in 1860. On June 19, 1862, a scout of Federal soldiers visited the Blue Mountain area from Batesville (Independence County) but encountered no resistance. After the Civil War, …

Bluff City (Nevada County)

  Bluff City is a town on State Highway 24 in eastern Nevada County. It is near both Poison Springs Battleground State Park and White Oak Lake State Park. When European explorers and settlers first came to what would be Nevada County, the Caddo were already living there. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Caddo lived mostly in the Red River valley but still claimed land to the north as hunting territory. In 1835, a treaty removed the Caddo from Arkansas. Settlement was gradual, but, by the 1860s, a number of plantations had been established in the township that was to include Bluff Springs. Among the landowners in the township were James Barlow, Elijah Frisby, Enoch …

Bluff Ridge (Scott County)

Bluff Ridge is a historical community located north of Highway 378 in northern Scott County. Bluff Ridge was established just north of Poteau Mountain and two miles west of the Petit Jean River. Agriculture and timber have been important to the area. Prior to European exploration, Bluff Ridge was a wilderness lush with native vegetation and numerous species of wildlife—including buffalo and elk, which no longer inhabit the area. Archaeological evidence from the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods has been discovered throughout the area. Additional evidence has indicated that the Caddo tribe had a strong presence along the Petit Jean River and other prominent waterways. Throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French trappers and explorers traveled west from the Arkansas …

Blytheville (Mississippi County)

Blytheville is located in the low, flat Mississippi Delta on land that was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years. Two prominent natural forces shape Blytheville. The first is the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Blytheville, which is prone to tremors, lies near the epicenters of the record-setting New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811–1812. Almost two centuries later, abundant evidence of these quakes is still visible in the Blytheville area. The second shaping force is the Mississippi River. The river’s impact includes flooding (such as in 1882–83 and the Flood of 1927), the creation of fertile farming soil, and providing waterway transportation for industry. Early Statehood through the Gilded Age Blytheville, originally known as Blythesville, is named for the Reverend Henry …

Bodcaw (Nevada County)

Bodcaw is a town in southern Nevada County on State Highway 53, about sixteen miles south of Prescott (Nevada County). The name Bodcaw was first given to a creek in Nevada County. It appears on a map from 1824, spelled Bodcau. The name is thought to be either from the Choctaw word “bokko,” meaning hillock or mound, or a misreading of the French name Bodeau or Badeau. The Caddo, who lived in the Red River valley, used to hunt as far north as Bodcaw. Among the first white settlers to claim land in the area were Jenkins Scott in 1855, David Montgomery in 1860, and Robert Berry in 1861. A post office opened in Bodcaw in 1878, and a stagecoach …

Boles (Scott County)

Boles is an unincorporated community located along Highway 71, nine miles south of Waldron (Scott County). Boles was established in the mid-nineteenth century along the Fourche La Fave River, which runs through the Fourche River Valley of the Ouachita Mountains. The first inhabitants of the area arrived thousands of years before Europeans, leaving archaeological evidence from the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. The Caddo tribe had a strong presence along the Fourche Le Fave River and other prominent waterways. Burial grounds have also been discovered in the southern portion of Scott County near Boles. Throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French trappers and explorers likely traveled the waters of the Petit Jean, Fourche La Fave, and Poteau rivers …

Bolivar (Poinsett County)

Bolivar is an example of one of the many small Arkansas towns that briefly rose to local prominence. Located on the slope of Crowley’s Ridge some three miles north of present-day Harrisburg (Poinsett County), the town served as the Poinsett County seat for approximately eighteen years. It never recovered from the removal of the county seat in 1856, followed by the devastation wrought by the Civil War. Today, only a cemetery remains. At the time of its creation in 1838, Poinsett County was sparsely settled, with no settlements that could be described as towns. The county government temporarily operated out of the home of William Harris, an early settler who served as the first county judge. A commission soon selected …

Bonanza (Sebastian County)

The city of Bonanza was a major center of the coal industry in Sebastian County during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since the decline of that industry, the company town has become a small bedroom community for the nearby city of Fort Smith (Sebastian County). According to historian Jim Hartness, the first mine in the Bonanza area, Mine No. 10, was started in 1896 but proved to be very poor. However, other mines were soon established, and around them grew a typical mining city dubbed Bonanza, reflecting hopes for great wealth. Mine superintendent C. C. Woodson filed a petition to incorporate the city, and it was incorporated on November 26, 1898. From the beginning, the city was a …

Bonnerdale (Hot Spring County)

Bonnerdale is an unincorporated community located in extreme western Hot Spring County. Located at the intersection of Mazarn Road and U.S. Highway 70, the community is closely associated with the nearby communities of Cross Roads (Hot Spring County) and Mount Moriah (Hot Spring County). Bonnerdale is located about ten miles northeast of Glenwood (Pike County) and about nineteen miles southwest of Hot Springs (Garland County). The nearby community of Old Bonnerdale is located just over the county line in Garland County. During the early days of the Arkansas Territory, Bonnerdale was part of Clark County. With the establishment of Hot Spring County on November 2, 1829, the area around what is now Bonnerdale became part of the new county. One …

Bono (Craighead County)

Bono, originally named Bonnerville, was established in the Big Creek Township, a community formed in Greene County before Craighead County was created in 1859. After the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad (Frisco) erected a train stop near Big Creek, it became one of the county’s most important business centers during the late nineteenth century. Big Creek Township, one of the oldest communities in Craighead County, was begun in 1837 by John Anderson and his son, who settled in the northwest part of the county. At that time, Big Creek Township included several small settlements, among them Trinity, Union Grove, Fifty-Six, and Paul’s Switch. Oak Ridge was the site of a Delaware village. Native Americans, including a community of …

Boone County

Located in the Ozark Mountain highlands, Boone County has endured struggles from its creation. Political, racial, and union conflicts have drawn national attention, often overshadowing the contributions of the county’s residents and businesses. Pre-European Exploration Archeological examinations of sites in Boone County indicate that Native American groups from a variety of time periods either lived or worked in the area. An examination of the Chaney-Crawford Site included points from the Archaic and Woodland periods, with a few from the Mississippian period. Evidence supports the idea that the site was occupied seasonally rather than permanently and served as a location to make tools. Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood Although they had no communities in the area, the Osage had claims to …

Boone-Murphy-Moore House

The Boone-Murphy-Moore House, now located at 714 West 4th Avenue in downtown Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), was built in 1860 by Thomas A. Boone. The home played a significant role during and after the Action at Pine Bluff in 1863. Serving as the Union headquarters during the Civil War, the Boone-Murphy-Moore House was utilized as the residence of Federal commander Colonel Powell Clayton. The small wooden-frame home is a one-story, single-pile weatherboard house with one-story additions to the east and west. It is raised slightly above grade on concrete pier foundation (alteration) with a tin shingle gable roof and shed roofs on the additions. The house has flat-roofed porches with turned posts and sawn brackets that flank the building on …

Booneville (Logan County)

Booneville, one of the two Logan County seats, is a progressive community with a wide range of facilities in addition to the normal municipal services. Its commercial activity consists of retail stores and small industries. Booneville supports a community center, a senior citizens center, a community hospital, and a municipal airport. Recreational facilities include two parks and a baseball complex. Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood One of the oldest towns in western Arkansas, Booneville was founded about 1828, when Walter Cauthron built a log cabin and opened a store near the Petit Jean River in what was then Crawford County. According to the Cauthron family tradition, he intended to name the settlement Bonneville in honor of his friend Captain Benjamin …

Boothe (Scott County)

Boothe is an unincorporated community in northern Scott County located along Highway 71. Boothe was established in 1889 just north of the Petit Jean River and named after the Booth family who settled in the area. The community was known as Tumlinsonville and later Tomlinson prior to being named Boothe. Agriculture has traditionally been an important way of life in the area. Prior to European exploration, the area surrounding Boothe was a wilderness. Several species of wildlife that no longer inhabit the area, such as elk and buffalo, were present throughout the region. Numerous archaeological sites and burial mounds are located along the banks of prominent waterways such as the Fourche La Fave and Poteau rivers. Archaeological findings have provided …

Boston Mountains

The Boston Mountains in north-central Arkansas are the southern portion of the Ozark Plateau geologic area. The Ozark Mountains extend across northern Arkansas and southern Missouri; this dome of rocks has been a relatively high area for the past 1.5 billion years. The most recent uplift of the Ozarks, including the Boston Mountains, occurred about 300 million years ago, and the mountains have been weathering and eroding since that time. This highland has the greatest relief (difference in the elevation from the valley bottoms to the mountain tops) of any formation between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. The Boston Mountains portion of the Ozarks extends north of the Arkansas River Valley as a rectangle twenty to thirty-five miles …

Boswell (Clark County)

Boswell is a community in Clark County that was most active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Located about five miles northeast of Okolona (Clark County), the area was first settled in the 1830s. The Southwest Trail passed through the community, bringing travelers and settlers. Around 1845, Hawes Coleman moved into the area and built a plantation called “Will-Be-Do.” Coleman was a lawyer and farmer who originally lived south of Arkadelphia (Clark County) along the Ouachita River but moved his family west in an effort to escape malaria. The area was in the South Fork Township during this period. The land was sparsely settled during the Civil War. A Federal army under the command of Major General Frederick …

Boswell (Izard County)

The unincorporated community of Boswell is located in the White River valley on the western boundary of Izard County. Some of the earliest pioneers to settle there were the Jeffery, Wood, and Langston families. The Langston family arrived at Boswell during Christmas week of 1814. The Jeffery family settled in the Boswell area in 1816, and William Wood settled at Boswell in 1820. The settlers were dependent upon the river as a primary source of transportation, using keelboats and flatboats powered by men using long poles. The early pioneers erected a building that was used as a school as well as a social center. They named this small pioneer community Wideman after the creek that flowed through it. The community …

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks

The Botanical Garden of the Ozarks (BGO) in Fayetteville (Washington County) opened in 2007 on acreage leased from the City of Fayetteville. The nonprofit organization is the result of a grassroots effort to establish a botanical garden with a mission of offering education, entertainment, and recreation to adults and children through a variety of events, programs, classes, and community connections. The Botanical Garden of the Ozarks is a member of the American Horticulture Society—which allows BGO members reciprocal admission to gardens and arboretums across the country—and the American Public Gardens Association, which encourages involvement in gardening for all ages. The Botanical Garden Society of the Ozarks was incorporated in January 1994. The founder and first director was Donna Porter, who …

Boughton (Nevada County)

Boughton (Nevada County) is an unincorporated community in Boughton Township. Boughton is about four miles northeast of Prescott (Nevada County) and about ten miles southwest of Gurdon (Clark County). The area around Boughton belonged to Hempstead County before Nevada County was formed in 1871. J. T. Cooper opened a general store in the Boughton area in 1872. Created by the Cairo and Fulton Railroad, Boughton served as a stop on the rail line. It was laid out in the summer of 1873 by R. F. Elgin, along with townsites at Prescott and Emmet (Nevada and Hempstead counties). Boughton and the others grew quickly as people from across the countryside were attracted to the new settlements. In 1875, the Nevada County …