Indian Bay is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southern

Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: * Monroe County, Alabama *Monroe County, Arkansas * Monroe County, Florida * Monroe County, Georgia *Monroe County, Illinois *Monroe County, Indian ...

, Arkansas, United States, in the Arkansas Delta. Indian Bay is on the eastern bank of the White River, east of St. Charles. For purposes of the U.S. Census, Indian Bay is within Montgomery-Smalley Township. The

Baytown Site The Baytown Site ( 3 MO 1) is a Pre-Columbian Native American archaeological site located on the White River at Indian Bay, in Monroe County, Arkansas. It was first inhabited by peoples of the Baytown culture (300 to 700 CE) and later briefly by ...

, a Pre-Columbian Native American archaeological site, is located near Indian Bay. The community was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 15.

History

The area of Indian Bay has long been inhabited, as is shown by nine Native American mounds nearby, the largest of which covers more than an acre. Artifacts found in the area are thought to be 1,300 to 1,700 years old, but the site is not open to the public. Around 1825 white settlers came to the area.

Cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...

trees were harvested and cotton fields planted. By the mid 19th-century Indian Bay had several stores, a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

and a sawmill, and had developed into a prominent stop for steamboats traveling on the White River. A post office opened at Indian Bay in 1860. Two area cotton plantations thrived. "Lamberton", a few miles north of Indian Bay in the no-longer existing community of Valley Grove, was started by Joel and Judith Lambert from Kentucky, who settled there in 1839. William Mayo arrived in the area around 1853, bringing a large number of slaves and developing a plantation of several thousand acres. The area gained notoriety when Congressman

James M. Hinds James M. Hinds (December 5, 1833 – October 22, 1868) was the first U.S. Congressman assassinated in office. He served as member of the United States House of Representatives for Arkansas from June 24, 1868 until his assassination by the ...

was murdered there in 1868.

Demographics

2020 census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''

References

Unincorporated communities in Monroe County, Arkansas Unincorporated communities in Arkansas Census-designated places in Arkansas Census-designated places in Monroe County, Arkansas {{MonroeCountyAR-geo-stub