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DHistory
History · Bay

Bay’s post office opened in 1884

More historic than 13% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Most of Bay was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Below: maps from 1940 on and the census since 1930.

1884first post office
0on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki ([email protected]) · CC BY 3.0
Quick answers

How Bay began

When was Bay founded?

1884

The Bay post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 300 in 19302020 census: 1,876142 years

How historic is Bay?

D

More historic than 13% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Bay post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Bay’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bay is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bay’s overall grade.
Founding era1884, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19401.5% of homes (±1.6) · typical AR town 3.1% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical AR town 20.5 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 13%
NewerOlder

Arkansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Arkansas town has 20.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bay’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (11% of Arkansas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±1.6 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Bay’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Bay are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bay’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bay’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Bay came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bay.

Read it all →

Located at 35.756882,-90.56504, there are only 2 remaining mounds of society who inhabited the area between 1200 and 1400AD. The Bay group itself culturally belongs to the Lawhorn Phase, a society which existed along both sides of the St. Francis River north of Marked Tree, Arkansas.

At 3:01 PM on April 27, 2011, a tornado hit Bay as part of the 2011 Super Outbreak. The tornado was rated low-end EF2, with estimated wind speeds of 115 miles per hour (185 km/h; 100 kn). The tornado lifted a carport and other light debris at the jonesboro Airport; its path of destruction was 200 yards (180 m) wide and the tornado travelled a path of 0.7 miles (1.1 km).

ChaptersList of highways

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bay, 1884 to 1940

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1884Post officeThe Bay post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1930Born hereWally Moon is born here
  5. 1940On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Bay, decade by decade

Today29 recent
Bay AR 0282011Bay AR 028Bay AR 0272011Bay AR 027Bay AR 0262011Bay AR 026Bay AR 0252011Bay AR 025Bay AR 0242011Bay AR 024Bay AR 0232011Bay AR 023Bay AR 0222011Bay AR 022Bay AR 0212011Bay AR 021Bay AR 0202011Bay AR 020Bay AR 0192011Bay AR 019Bay AR 0182011Bay AR 018Bay AR 0172011Bay AR 017Bay AR 0162011Bay AR 016Bay AR 0152011Bay AR 015Bay AR 0142011Bay AR 014Bay AR 0132011Bay AR 013Bay AR 0122011Bay AR 012Bay AR 0112011Bay AR 011Bay AR 0102011Bay AR 010Bay AR 0092011Bay AR 009Bay AR 0082011Bay AR 008Bay AR 0072011Bay AR 007Bay AR 0062011Bay AR 006Bay AR 0052011Bay AR 005Bay AR 0042011Bay AR 004Bay AR 0032011Bay AR 003Bay AR 0022011Bay AR 002Bay AR 0012011Bay AR 001ARMap-doton-Bay2005ARMap-doton-Bay
On the map

Bay on the map, 1940 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bay. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Bay on the 1940 USGS mapBay on the 1958 USGS mapBay on the 1983 USGS map1940Dee 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 Bay.

People over time

Bay, census by census

05001,0001,5002,000194019601980200020201,876

Grew from 300 people in 1930 to 1,876 in 2020, 6 times over.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bay’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Bay’s post office has been open since 1884.

Gone or out of use
Davis Spur Schoolschool

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Jonesboro18 historic placesC

Questions about Bay’s history

What year was Bay founded?

The Bay post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Bay rank for history?

Bay is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Bay?

2% of Bay’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.6 points), against a typical 3.1% for an Arkansas town; the median home was built in 1977.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (29), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.