Dickinson-Moore House · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Arkansas City
Arkansas City’s post office opened in 1872, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 3 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1880.
Peaked at 1,485 in 1910; 376 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Arkansas City’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Arkansas City, building by building, 1886–1917
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Arkansas City, since 1879 the county seat of Desha County, was incorporated by the Chicot County Court on September 12, 1873, being then, and for some years later, in Chicot County. From 1879, it grew into a thriving riverport for the next forty years. It had a natural harbor for steamboats and two railways, as well as fourteen saloons and three sawmills. An opera house was moved to Arkansas City in 1891. The building was also used as an unofficial "town hall"; at other times it became a ballroom, and citizens danced to music of groups from Memphis, Tennessee.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Arkansas City. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1939Lamont sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Arkansas City.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewArkansas City, Ark., street scene, 1927
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Arkansas City’s page.
The Arkansas City post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Arkansas City?
8 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Desha County Courthouse (listed 1976, the first), 1 historic district, the Arkansas City Commercial District, with 3 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 9 historic buildings in all.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (6), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1927
1927
