Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Big Flat School Gymnasium, the Domino Shed and the Uncle Willie Huffines Park. Below: maps from 1966 on and the census since 1940.
The Big Flat post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Bigflat (1873), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Big Flat’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Big Flat yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Big Flat is a town in Baxter and Searcy counties in the U.S. state of Arkansas. The population was 88 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1873. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 105 to 88 (-16%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Big Flat.
1966Big Flat sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Big Flat.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 88 and 217 people in every census since 1940.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Big Flat’s Wikipedia page.
Another post office, Bigflat, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Big Flat post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Three places: the Big Flat School Gymnasium (listed 1993), the Domino Shed (2025) and the Uncle Willie Huffines Park (2025).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.
