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History · Natural Steps

Natural Steps’ post office opened in 1880, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Natural Steps was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Its Register listing is the Maumelle River Bridge. Below: maps from 1943 on.

1880first post office
1on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Natural Steps began

When was Natural Steps founded?

1880

The Natural Steps post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 413146 years
Founding year: the first Natural Steps post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Natural Steps’ 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 Natural Steps are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Natural Steps’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Natural Steps’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 Natural Steps came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Natural Steps.

Read it all →

The small town was named after "two perfectly parallel vertical walls of sandstone, twenty feet apart, [that] jut out from the disintegrated soft slates, in prominent conformity, descending steplike, fifty-one feet from the top of the bank, where they first show themselves, to the edge of the lowest water-mark of the Arkansas River, and can be seen running their course beneath the stream. These form a conspicuous landmark to boatman and travelers on the Arkansas River, and are known under the name of the "Natural Steps". Beginning in 1822, the local "Natural Steps" provided a convenient stop for Little Rock visitors to disembark for their hike to the mountain."

ChaptersNative AmericansFrench explorersSteamboat landingBattle of Palarm

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Natural Steps, 1880 to 1943

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Natural Steps post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1925BuiltMaumelle River Bridge is built
  5. 1925Post officeThe Natural Steps post office closes
  6. 1943On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Natural Steps on the map, 1943 to 1994

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

Natural Steps on the 1943 USGS mapNatural Steps on the 1954 USGS mapNatural Steps on the 1961 USGS mapNatural Steps on the 1970 USGS mapNatural Steps on the 1986 USGS mapNatural Steps on the 1994 USGS map1943Pinnacle Mtn sheet · 1:31,680

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Natural Steps.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Natural Steps

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2020
Maumelle River Bridge
Maumelle River Bridge, built 1925
Structures
All 1 listings
Maumelle River BridgeStructure · listed 2020

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Natural Steps

Nobody well known was born in Natural Steps itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Douglas MacArthurUnited States Army general in WWI, WWII and Kor… · b. 1880
Chelsea ClintonAmerican author and global health advocate · b. 1980
John Michael JumperAmerican chemist and AI expert · b. 1985
J
Josh LucasAmerican actor · b. 1971
Joey Lauren AdamsAmerican actress · b. 1968
Joe JohnsonAmerican basketball player · b. 1981
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Natural Steps had its own post office from 1880 to 1925.

Natural Steps
1880–1925
18801950today
1cemetery inside Natural Steps
Natural Steps

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.

RolandIts storyC−

Questions about Natural Steps’ history

What year was Natural Steps founded?

The Natural Steps post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Natural Steps?

One place: the Maumelle River Bridge (listed 2020).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.