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Pope County is a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in the U.S. state of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
. As of the 2020 census, the population was 63,381. The
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is Russellville. The county was formed on November 2, 1829, from a portion of Crawford County and named for John Pope, the third governor of the
Arkansas Territory The Arkansas Territory was a organized incorporated territory of the United States, territory of the United States from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the ...
. Pope County was the nineteenth (of seventy-five) county formed. The county's borders changed eighteen times in the 19th century with the creation of new counties and adjustments between counties. The current boundaries were set on March 8, 1877. Pope County is geographically diverse, with the Arkansas River Valley and its farmlands and towns in the southern portion and the
Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...
covering nearly two-thirds of the county to the north, including a portion of the rugged Boston Mountains, a deeply
dissected plateau A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded, and the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of fold (geology), ...
. Approximately 40% of the county is in the Ozark National Forest. Pope County is an alcohol prohibition or
dry county In the United States, a dry county is a county whose local government forbids the sale of any kind of alcoholic beverages. Some prohibit off-premises sale, some prohibit on-premises sale, and some prohibit both. The vast majority of counties n ...
. Pope County is part of the Russellville, Arkansas, Micropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Pope and Yell County.


History


Louisiana Purchase and Cherokee Lands

In 1803,
Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
sold
French Louisiana The term French Louisiana ( ; ) refers to two distinct regions: * First, to Louisiana (New France), historic French Louisiana, comprising the massive, middle section of North America claimed by Early Modern France, France during the 17th and 18th ...
to the United States, including all of Arkansas. Today, that transaction is known as the
Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...
. By 1804, Present Jefferson, with others, looked to the new lands as a refuge for Indian peoples on lands near American settlements, keeping American settlers and Indian societies separate. Soon after the Louisiana Purchase, much of the region encompassing future Pope and other counties was designated as lands for the removal of eastern native tribes. In about 1805, Cherokee living in southeast Missouri on the Mississippi River moved to the Arkansas River at the suggestion of
Louisiana Territory The Territory of Louisiana or Louisiana Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1805, until June 4, 1812, when it was renamed the Missouri Territory. The territory was formed out of t ...
Governor James Wilkinson. After the New Madrid earthquakes, most of the Cherokee—as many as 2,000 people—who had lived along the St. Francis River relocated to the Arkansas River Valley. In 1815, the US government established a Cherokee Reservation in the Arkansas district of the Missouri Territory and tried to convince the Cherokee to move there voluntarily. The reservation boundaries extended from north of the
Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...
to the southern bank of the White River. The Cherokee who moved to this reservation became known as the "Old Settlers" or Western Cherokee. A village on the Illinois Bayou served as the capitol of the Western Cherokees from 1813 to 1824. The Treaty of 1817 secured lands in Arkansas for the Western Cherokees north of the Arkansas River between Point Remove and Fort Smith and removed all citizens of the United States, except Persis Lovely, the widow of Indian Agenet William Lovely. Most white settlers moved to new locations south of the river. By 1820, new Cherokee emigrants from the east had blended with the ''Old Settlers'' in a new "colony" with a string of Cherokee villages stretching for over 70 miles above Point Remove. About half of this distance was in the future Pope County. An 1820 description by Territorial Governor James Miller called it a "lovely, rich part of the country". In 1818, the chief of the Arkansas Cherokees, Tol-on-tus-ky (Tolunskee or Tollontiskee), requested that the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...
send a mission to Arkansas. The assignment was given to Cephas Washburn and his brother-in-law, Alfred Finney, who established a mission in 1820 on the west side of Illinois Bayou about four miles from the Arkansas River. The stream was navigable for keelboats about nine months of the year. The mission was named Dwight for the late Rev. Timothy Dwight, president of
Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
and a corporate member of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...
. The site was on a gentle rise covered with a growth of oak and pine at the foot of which issued a large spring of pure water. Above, below and opposite the site was plenty of excellent bottomland for cultivation. The mission was conveniently near Indian villages. The mission eventually included more than 25 buildings, including seven log cabins, a dining hall, library, post office, lumber house, carpenter shop, saw mill, meat house, grist mill and barn. The land where Dwight Mission buildings were is now under the waters of Lake Dardanelle, but the cemetery is still on the hill nearby. By the time Arkansas Territory was established in 1819, the western Cherokees represented at least 20 percent of the total population of the Territory, mostly centered along the Arkansas River and the future Pope County.


Arkansas Territory

Beginning in the 1820s, an increasing number of settlers came to Arkansas from southern states resulting in an environment for the eastern Indians who had moved to Arkansas that was similar to that from which they had been expelled. Under a new treaty concluded on May 6, 1828, the western boundary of Arkansas was established with seven million acres to the west of that provided to the Cherokees "forever". The Cherokees agreed to leave the Arkansas lands within 14 months. In 1829, all of the people at Dwight Mission moved to the new Indian Territory—in present-day Oklahoma—, where Dwight Mission was re-established in a new location. Pope County was established on November 2, 1829, ten years after the establishment of the Territory of Arkansas, with a temporary county seat to be at the home of John Bollinger. A county seat selection commission elected in January 1830 chose the community of Scotia, home of Judge Andrew Scott, a neighbor of Bollinger, as the permanent county seat. With the formation of Johnson County in 1833, Scotia was but half a mile from the county line. The county seat was moved to Dwight and, then, in 1834, to Norristown, a growing town of the Arkansas River upstream and across the river from Dardanelle. Transportation into Arkansas' interior in the early years was mostly limited to river travel. While navigable, the Arkansas River was unpredictable, alternating between floods and droughts and infested with sandbars and snags. The winding Arkansas River passed through a vast swampy floodplain that covered much of eastern Arkansas, a breeding ground for
malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
-bearing mosquitos. Settlers in those areas soon suffered from malarial fevers and other ailments and Arkansas gained a reputation as a sick and swampy land. Most pioneers avoided Arkansas and chose other destinations to settle in. Those who ventured further—into central and western parts of the territory, and Pope County—found good soils along the river valley and, in the mountains, healthy forests of pine, oaks, and hickory, with well-drained soils for farming in the valleys, a wealth of forage for grazing and an abundance of game animals. At the end of the territorial years, the bulk of the people of Pope County were plain-folk farmers, herders, and hunters.


Antebellum Pope County

When Yell County was established on December 5, 1840, the county seat was again on the periphery of the county and the county seat was moved to
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
—a more central location in the county—in 1841, after being selected by commissioners chosen for that purpose. The first courthouse was a log structure. With the outbreak of war with Mexico, in July 1846, a company of mounted infantry volunteers from Pope County, organized under Captain David West, along with volunteer units from other counties, entered service in the Indian Territory, replacing regular Army troops that had been dispatched to Mexico. The Arkansas volunteer troops provided an essential Federal military presence along the state's western border and eastern portion of the Indian Territory during a period of violent disputes between factions in the Cherokee Nation. After the arrival of three companies of regular Army dragoon recruits, the Pope County volunteers returned home in late April 1847. There were 695 white families in Pope County in 1850. The total population, according to the census, was 4,710; 10.2% were slaves (479 Individuals). Only 1,640 individuals had been born in Arkansas. Most of the rest had been born in southern slave states. There were 11 who were foreign-born, including Dr. Thomas Russell. Sixty-two percent of the white population was under 15 years old. Twenty-three individuals were seventy or older; just two had made it to eighty. Over eighty percent of the population was supported by agriculture, mostly by self-sufficient farm families. Other occupations included carpentry, blacksmithing, tanning, lumbering, merchandising, and wagon-making. There were some lawyers, teachers, doctors, and preachers as well as millers, saddlers, shoemakers, cabinet-makers, county officials, and at least one tar kiln operator. There were 100 slaveowners, and ten owned ten or more slaves. Three farmers had twenty or more slaves, enough to be considered "planters" in the slave culture of the south. There were no free blacks documented. There were thirteen sawmills—two steam-powered and the rest powered by water—, two tanneries, and a cotton factory producing 22,500 pounds of thread annually. Dr. Thomas Russell, for whom Russellville was named, owned 680 acres of land, four slaves, a store, and ten town lots. There were eleven one-teacher subscription schools with a total enrollment of 326 students. Churches totaled ten, according to the census, with 6 Methodist, 2 Baptist, 1 Cumberland Presbyterian, and 1 Old School Presbyterian. Principal causes of death, were, in order,
croup Croup ( ), also known as croupy cough, is a type of respiratory infection that is usually caused by a virus. The infection leads to swelling inside the trachea, which interferes with normal breathing and produces the classic symptoms of "bar ...
, winter fever,
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
, hives, diarrhea, consumption and accidents. More than half of all deaths were infants under one year of age and only nine percent were over forty. Dover, the county seat, was the most important town between Little Rock and Fort Smith in 1850. Galla Rock, south of present-day Atkins, and Norristown were important trading centers with goods transported on the Arkansas River. In the late 1850s, Edward Payson Washburn took inspiration from Pope County scenes near the family's Norristown home for his most famous work, ''The Arkansas Traveler'', the composition of which was derived from a story he heard from
Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
Sandford C. Faulkner. Supposedly occurring on the campaign trail in Arkansas in 1840, Colonel Faulkner's humorous story ends with a fiddle playing
squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...
being won over by the traveler (man on horse in image). Washburn's father was Cephas Washburn, founder of Dwight Mission. While the majority of the population of Pope County consisted of rural families, many were squatters on state or federal land. In 1851, about 76% of households did not own land and, in 1860, some 66% did not. In 1860, though its population had grown by 67.4% in a decade, Pope County was still sparsely settled. The slave population had grown to 12.4% (978 individuals). Along with the rest of Arkansas, it was on an economic frontier attracting relatively large numbers of new settlers, mostly from other southern states. Even though Arkansas had been a state since 1836, the few communities were small with limited development. The population in the 1860 census included 6,905 whites. There were 978 slaves, mostly in the agricultural areas in the southern part of the county. Most families were in the southern lowlands of the county. A railroad being developed to be built through the county—the Little Rock & Fort Smith—was to include a depot in Dover.


Civil War

After South Carolina seceded in December 1860, an election was scheduled in Arkansas for February 1861 to vote on whether Arkansas would secede and if a secession convention would be called. In Pope County, prior to the election, secession was rejected four to one in a straw ballot. In the statewide vote on February 18, secession was voted down. The convention in March rejected an ordinance of secession, scheduled a vote of the people on secession for August, and adjourned subject to recall by the president of the convention. After Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln issued a call for support from the states, many advocated for recalling the convention, but others were opposed, such as the delegate from Pope County, William Stout, who wrote, "I believe it is the President's duty to put down rebellion. I have always thought so." Convention President David Walker issued a proclamation calling for the convention to reconvene on May 6 where, in the final vote, th
Arkansas Ordinance of Secession
was passed by a vote of 69 to 1. In 1861, much of Pope County was still a wilderness frontier. There was no railroad. Roads were little more than tracks and there were no bridges crossing streams. The population was sparse with most dependent on subsistence farming. Many were squatters not owning the land their cabins were on. During the war, what little civil authority there was collapsed throughout Arkansas. By 1863, in most of the state, travel was dangerous, farming hazardous, and county government inoperative. Pope County records at Dover were moved to a cave for protection. Several skirmishes took place in the county, but there were no major engagements. On April 8, 1865, Dover, including the courthouse was burned. The civil war's primary principles—for the South, independence and preservation of slavery, and for the North, restoration of the Union—soon lost their relevance in thinly settled Pope County. As in much of the region, the already hard lives of much of the population were disrupted by wartime loyalties separating unionists from rebels. For many, the struggle turned into a no-holds-barred conflict of killing and driving out opponents in the interest of ensuring the survival of families and allies. Of those who were able to, many fled to safer places. Most able-bodied men were away from home on one side or the other. Many of those left behind—women, old men, and children—fell prey to bands of guerrillas aligned to the Confederacy—called bushwhackers by Union sympathizers—or the Union—called jayhawkers by southerners. Some belonged to neither side, attacking both sides and committing murder and arson and "pilfering and robbing of clothes, rustling cattle, emptying corn bins, taking whatever they wanted". Others actively supported one side or the other, such as William Stout's cooperation with the federals, though it probably led to his assassination in 1865. With Federal troops stationed at Lewisburg—on the river south of present-day Morrilton—and Clarksville in 1864, foraging parties seeking supplies ranged into Pope County. Many families remaining in the county suffered incursions by the military and guerilla bands. Following the civil war, Pope County remained sparsely settled, with a census population in 1870 of only 503 more people than had been recorded before the war. Many of the people who had fled the upheaval and uncertainties of the war years never returned and, of course, many former residents had not survived the conflict. The Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad had been postponed by the conflict with the first rails not laid until 1869.


Reconstruction

Arkansas became the second former Confederate state to be fully restored to the Union in June 1868, but political and social stability was still years away. During the military reconstruction period (1867-1868), when Arkansas was placed in the Fourth Military District, companies E and G of the Nineteenth Infantry, were stationed in Pope County and headquartered at Dover for a year and a half. In 1868, a militia law passed by the general assembly authorized the governor to enroll a state guard modeled, generally, after the U. S. Army. Elements of this guard would be used four years later in Pope County. Between 1865 and 1870, at least five county officials were assassinated: Sheriff Archibald D. Napier and Deputy Sheriff Albert Parks on October 24, 1865, County Clerk William Stout on December 4, 1865, Sheriff W. Morris Williams on August 20, 1866, and Russellville Postmaster John L. Harkey on July 27, 1868. Napier and Williams both served as Captain of the Third Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (Union), Company I where Wallace H. Hickox, Stout's successor, was a lieutenant and John H. Williams, a successor to Parks and Morris Williams' brother, was a bugler. On March 1, 1870, the new Pope County jail in Dover was burned. A man named Glover later claimed responsibility.


Militia War

A period of a little over seven months in 1872 and 1873 came to be known as the Pope County Militia War. However, there were no battles or skirmishes. There were no engagements between organized opponents of any kind. Instead, an unofficial militia, headed by four county officers, exerted excessive and harsh control over the county, including threats to burn Dover, the county seat. By the end of the period, three of the four officials were dead.


Late Nineteenth Century

By June 1873, regular service on the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad extended all the way through the county as far as Clarksville in Johnson County. County commerce that had previously made Dover the business center of the county moved to Russellville or Atkins.


County Seat move from Dover to Russellville

With the new railroad running eight miles south of the county seat at Dover and the gradual relocation of county commerce toward Russellville and Atkins, moving the county seat was inevitable. Russellville was developing into the business center of the county and a newer town, Atkins, was growing fast and would compete as a potential new location for the county seat. It took 15 years from an act from the Arkansas General Assembly moving the county seat to Russellville—reversed the next year, sending it back to Dover—until the new courthouse was completed in Russellville. Dover had been selected in the 1840s for its more central location in the county. Thirty years later, the southern townships held the majority of the population and paid a large majority of the taxes.


=County Seat—1870s

= An act to move the county seat passed in the General Assembly in 1873 but was repealed during a special session of the General Assembly in 1874. The moving of the county seat from Russellville back to Dover in 1874 was because moving the county seat from Dover to Russellville had not been done by the citizens but rather by the legislature. The railroad had just opened up through Russellville and the citizens did not see that the business center of the county had so shifted yet as to justify the change. Winds from a storm on March 8, 1878, damaged the county courthouse in Dover, rendering it "unfit and unsafe". With the county having no funds to repair the structure, its condition became a consideration for some in the issue of moving the county seat, with citizens of Russellville offering a building site and $2,500 to build a new courthouse there at no cost to the taxpayers. A church was used for a courtroom during terms of the circuit court while the courthouse was unavailable. On September 2, 1878, an election was held, as ordered by the county court to determine: # whether to move the county seat from Dover, and # whether to change the county seat to Atkins or to Russellville if the voters decided to move the seat from Dover. Following the special election, the county clerk certified that a majority (1,240) of the qualified electors voted to move the county seat from Dover. However, neither Atkins nor Russellville received enough votes to determine where the new county seat would be located. The results of the election were challenged in court. On April 30, 1879, an election was ordered by the county court to be held June 20, 1879, to determine whether the county seat would be changed to Russellville or to Atkins. On June 17, Russellville citizens increased the amount of their bond for building a new courthouse from $2,500 to $10,000. The results of that election were moot after courts overturned the results of the September 1878 vote. The case made it to the Arkansas Supreme Court which returned the case to the circuit court of Judge W. D. Jacoway. Jacoway's subsequent ruling was that there were 200 votes of men voting in the wrong township and 150 ballots that were marked "for Russellville" that were not marked for a move "from" Dover. The ruling said that the proposition to move the county seat received just 890 votes. There were 2,266 qualified voters at the time of the election. The law required a majority of qualified voters to approve the move of the county seat, Note: Approved March 2, 1885 which, for this election, would have been 1,134 votes "for" the move. During the 1879 September term of Pope County Circuit Court, a grand jury condemned the courthouse as "wholy unfit for use as a Court House."


=County Seat—1880s

= With the 1878 vote to move the county seat from Dover reversed, repairs to the county courthouse in Dover were made in the early 1880s. The contract for the repairs was to W. R. Cox of Atkins for $1,000. A September 6, 1886, election—ordered on July 21, 1886, in response to two petitions—had three proposals: #Shall the County Seat be removed or changed? (''removed'' meant ''moved'') #Shall the County Seat be removed from Dover to Russellville? #Shall the County Seat be removed from Dover to Atkins? Again, a majority voted to move the county seat from Dover, but neither Russellville nor Atkins received enough votes to move it to either place. Pope County had 3,688 registered voters at the time. The move to Russellville received 1,485 votes (40.2% of registered voters) and Atkins garnered 1200 (32.5% of the registered voters). In October 1886, the county court set aside the election, deciding that the election was void for bribery, Russellville having offered to erect a courthouse if she was selected as the county seat. The decision was appealed to the circuit court, where M. L. Davis was elected special judge to try the contested case. On November 12, Davis reversed the county court's decision and ordered that an election be held on March 19, 1887, to determine whether the county seat would be moved to Russellville or to Atkins. His decision was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court. The offer that Russellville's leading citizens made included lots in Russellville as the site for a new courthouse and a $50,000 bond for the construction, without cost to the county, of a "good and sufficient two story brick court house" and a "good, sufficient, and commodious jail". Before the September 1886 election, citizens in Atkins made a very similar offer. The certified result of the March 19, 1887, special election was 1,399 votes for Russellville and 1271 for Atkins, with Russellville selected by a margin of 128 votes out of 2,670 total votes cast. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the ruling by Judge Davis on June 4, 1887, clearing the way for the county seat to be moved to Russellville and for the construction of a new courthouse and jail. Title to properties in Russellville for the new courthouse and jail had been tendered to the county in March. On June 13, the bondsmen for the new courthouse held a meeting and took steps deemed necessary to start the work and on September 23, the cornerstone was laid. County records were moved to Russellville in August and, temporarily, the county courtroom and clerk's office were upstairs in the R. J. Wilson Building. The new courthouse and jail in Russellville were accepted as completed on May 16, 1888, by J.M. Haney, W. H. Poynter, and L. D. Ford, commissioners appointed by the county court to examine and receive the new county structures.


Railroads, ferry, and a bridge

With the completion of the railroad through the county and the move of the county seat, some smaller communities such as Norristown and Dover went into a period of decline or disappeared. On August 15, 1893, train operations began on the Dardanelle and Russellville Railroad (D&R). A shortline that still exists, the D&R railroad runs from Russellville to the north bank of the
Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...
at North Dardanelle, across from Dardanelle, Arkansas. The line was originally built primarily to transport agricultural products—primarily cotton—from Dardanelle to the LR&FS depot in Russellville. For the first eight years of operation, freight and passengers crossed the river on a ferry. In 1891, the ferry across the river at Dardanelle was supplanted by the Dardanelle pontoon bridge which was in use for nearly four decades except for periods when its operation was interrupted because of high river flows or other disruptions.


Coal mining

''See also Arkansas River Valley coal mining'' Coal fields in Arkansas extend from southern Pope County to near the state's western border, in an area about 33 miles wide and 60 miles long. Coal was mined in Pope County from the latter portion of the 19th century through the middle of the 20th century.


Twentieth Century

On the night of January 16, 1906, nearly half of the business district of Russellville was destroyed by fire. The county courthouse was spared, though most of the buildings in its block of the city were lost. In 1931, the 1878 county courthouse was demolished and replaced with the current building. Arkansas's first highway rest area was built in Pope County on Highway 7 in the 1930s. Despite its challenging terrain, Highway 7 became a major route for travelers, connecting Russellville and Harrison. This was back when cars were a relatively new invention and there were few places to stop and take a break. "Rotary Ann" rest stop was named after the Rotary Club's ladies' auxiliary. The Russellville branch recognized the need for a rest area with bathrooms and scenic views along Highway 7 and worked with the Rotary Club to create a scenic overlook in the 1930s. In 1954, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers dug a new, straight channel for the Arkansas River across the 6-mile "bend" of Pope County's Holla Bend. The project was part of the long-term development of the river for flood control and mitigation and future use of the river for navigation. The new channel is entirely in Pope County. Holla Bend, now on the south side of the river, is accessible by land only through neighboring Yell County. After the channel project was completed, the Corps turned 4,068 acres back to the General Services Administration (GSA), advising the GSA that the land, which had been part of the "Holla Bend Cutoff" flood control project, was surplus. Following a period of uncertainty due to local opposition, Holla Bend was acquired by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1957 for development and use as a national wildlife refuge. Additional acquisitions have brought the total number of acres to 7,055 currently under refuge management.


Twenty-First Century


Casino Issue

In the November 2018 general election, Pope County was one of four counties designated as locations for the first legal casinos in Arkansas in Issue 4, which, when passed, became Amendment 100 to the Arkansas Constitution. The other three counties were Jefferson, Garland, and Crittenden. While the casinos in the other counties are open and operating, the casino license in Pope County has been mired in litigation, primarily due to two lawsuits by Gulfside Casino Partnership, one filed on August 15, 2019, and the other filed on March 9, 2021. The Arkansas Racing Commission awarded the Pope County license to Gulfside Casino Partnership on July 31, 2020, but, after the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed and dismissed a ruling by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox and rendered Gulfside ineligible, the license was awarded to Cherokee Nation Businesses and Legends Resort and Casino on November 12, 2021. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox voided that license in a ruling on January 3, 2013. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Fox's ruling on October 26, 2023. After changes to the Arkansas gaming rules and a new application period, the Pope County Casino license was issued to Cherokee Nation Entertainment, a division of Cherokee Nation Businesses. In November 2024, Issue 2, a ballot option, placed on the ballot after a successful petition, campaign removed Pope County from Amendment 100 and voided the


Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.2%) is water.


Major highways

*
Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...
* U.S. Highway 64 * Arkansas Highway 7 * Arkansas Highway 7S * Arkansas Highway 7T * Arkansas Highway 16 * Arkansas Highway 27 * Arkansas Highway 105 * Arkansas Highway 123 * Arkansas Highway 124 * Arkansas Highway 164 *
Arkansas Highway 247 Highway 247 (AR 247, Ark. 247, and Hwy. 247) is a designation for four north–south List of state highways in Arkansas, state highways in the Arkansas River Valley. Two are low traffic, two-lane, rural connector highways serving sparsely popula ...
* Arkansas Highway 324 * Arkansas Highway 326 * Arkansas Highway 331 * Arkansas Highway 333 * Arkansas Highway 363 * Arkansas Highway 980


Adjacent counties

* Newton County (northwest) * Searcy County (northeast) * Van Buren County (northeast) * Conway County (southeast) * Yell County (south) * Logan County (southwest) * Johnson County (west)


National protected areas

* Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge (part) * Ozark National Forest (part) * East Fork Wilderness


Demographics


2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 63,381 people, 22,579 households, and 14,881 families residing in the county.


2000 census

As of the 2000 census, there were 54,469 people, 20,701 households, and 15,008 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 22,851 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 93.73%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 2.61%
Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
or
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.68% Native American, 0.64% Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.93% from other races, and 1.39% from two or more races. 2.06% of the population were
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race. There were 20,701 households, out of which 34.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.60% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 10.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.50% were non-families. 23.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.00. In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.50% under the age of 18, 11.60% from 18 to 24, 28.20% from 25 to 44, 21.90% from 45 to 64, and 12.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,069, and the median income for a family was $39,055. Males had a median income of $29,914 versus $19,307 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $15,918. About 11.60% of families and 15.20% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 18.80% of those under age 18 and 14.00% of those age 65 or over.


Government


Government

The county government is a constitutional body granted specific powers by the Constitution of Arkansas and the Arkansas Code. The quorum court is the legislative branch of the county government and controls all spending and revenue collection. Representatives are called ''justices of the peace'' and are elected from county districts every even-numbered year. The number of districts in a county vary from nine to fifteen, and district boundaries are drawn by the county election commission. The Pope County Quorum Court has thirteen members. Presiding over quorum court meetings is the ''county judge'', who serves as the
chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...
of the county. The county judge is elected at-large and does not vote in quorum court business, although capable of vetoing quorum court decisions. The composition of the Quorum Court following the 2024 elections is 13 Republicans. Justices of the Peace (members) of the Quorum Court following the elections are: * District 1: Phillip Haney (R) * District 2: Margaret Motley (R) * District 3: Tim Whittenburg (R) * District 4: Ronnie Wilbanks (R) * District 5: Jackie Heflin (R) * District 6: Suzanne McCall (R) * District 7: Blake Tarpley (R) * District 8: Doug Skelton (R) * District 9: Bill Sparks (R) * District 10: Jamie Jackson (R) * District 11: Lane A. Scott (R) * District 12: Jordan Sowers (R) * District 13: David Ivy (R) Additionally, the townships of Pope County are entitled to elect their own respective constables, as set forth by the Constitution of Arkansas. Constables are largely of historical significance as they were used to keep the peace in rural areas when travel was more difficult. The township constables as of the 2024 elections are: * District 1: Michael Chisum (R) * District 2: Robert T. Sims (R) * District 3: Greg Nelson (R) * District 4: Ricky Parks (R) * District 5: Alan D. Bradley (R) * District 6: Jim Bob Jackson (R) * District 7: Mark Frost (R)


Politics

Pope County, one part of the Solid South, voted for the Democratic nominee in every election through 1964. In 1968,
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
became the first Republican to win the county, narrowly beating Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist
George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...
of the American Independent Party. Pope county continued to vote Republican, voting only for fellow southerner
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
in 1976 and Arkansas native
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
in 1996. Over the past few election cycles, Pope County has trended even more heavily towards the GOP. The last Democrat (as of 2024) to carry this county was Bill Clinton in 1996.


Communities


Cities

* Atkins *
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
*
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
* Pottsville * Russellville (county seat)


Towns

*
Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; , ) was a Trojan prince, a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. He is a major character in Homer's ''Iliad'', where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing c ...


Census-designated places

* Appleton * Oak Grove


Other unincorporated communities

*
Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
* Nogo


Townships

Pope County formerly included 10 more townships. Allen Township was moved into Hogan Township around 1910, and Hill Township, Galla Creek Township, Independence Township, Lee Township, North Fork Township, Sand Spring Township, and Sulphur Township were also formerly active townships in Pope County. Holla Bend Township, containing the Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge, has also been disbanded.


Education

School districts in Pope County:
Text list
/ref> * Atkins Public Schools * Clinton School District * Dover School District * Hector School District * Lamar School District * Pottsville Public Schools * Russellville Schools * Wonderview School District


See also

* List of lakes in Pope County, Arkansas * National Register of Historic Places listings in Pope County, Arkansas


Notes


External links


Pope County, Arkansas
entry on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture {{authority control Pope County, Arkansas 1829 establishments in Arkansas Territory Populated places established in 1829 Russellville, Arkansas micropolitan area