Yell County, Arkansas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Yell County
U.S. county
Yell County Courthouse, Dardanelle
Location within the U.S. state of Arkansas
Arkansas's location within the U.S.
Country	United States
State	Arkansas
Founded	December 5, 1840
Named for	Archibald Yell
Seat	Danville (western district); Dardanelle (eastern district)
Largest city	Dardanelle
Area
• Total	949 sq mi (2,460 km2)
• Land	930 sq mi (2,400 km2)
• Water	19 sq mi (50 km2)  2.0%%
Population  (2020)
• Total	20,263
• Estimate  (2021)	20,155
• Density	21.352/sq mi (8.244/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	4th

Yell County is a county in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,263. The county has two county seats, Dardanelle and Danville. Yell County is Arkansas's 42nd county, formed on December 5, 1840, from portions of Scott and Pope counties. It was named after Archibald Yell, who was the state's first member of the United States House of Representatives and the second governor of Arkansas. He died in combat at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican–American War.

Yell County is part of the Russellville micropolitan statistical Area. Yell County is a dry county as alcohol is prohibited.

History

Native Americans first inhabited present-day Yell County and the Arkansas River Valley for thousands of years prior to European colonization. They used the open, fertile floodplain of the Arkansas River for hunting grounds and later farming settlements. During the Thomas Jefferson and Indian Removal era, many Cherokee were voluntarily relocating from Georgia along the Arkansas River, including in Yell County, between 1775 and 1786. A large Cherokee reservation across the Arkansas River from Yell County was established in 1815 to encourage further voluntary relocation from Georgia.

The area presently encompassed as Yell County was first settled by European settlers when James Carden built a house in 1819 among Cherokee farms in the Dardanelle Bottoms, at the confluence of the Arkansas and Petit Jean rivers. Lands south of the Arkansas River had been deeded to the Choctaw in the 1820s when they removed from their homelands east of the Mississippi River, but white settlement and Cherokee relocation continued apace into the 1820s. The peoples competed over the prime river-bottom lands.

In June 1823, a meeting between numerous Cherokee chiefs and acting Territorial Governor Robert Crittenden was held under two large oak trees. Long believed by many to result in a "Council Oaks Treaty" reestablishing Cherokee title of 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) north of the Arkansas River, Crittenden had no treaty-making authority and the meeting ended with no agreement other than each party sending separate letters to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun.

Some Cherokee remained on their farms south of the river, the group identifying itself as Black Dutch, intermarrying and assimilating with the area's white settlers.

In 1830, the United States Congress enacted the Indian Removal Act, leading to further, forcible Cherokee settlement from the Southeast into the Arkansas River Valley. Cherokee, Muskogee (Creek), and Seminole were forcibly removed along the Trail of Tears through Yell County to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

Yell County was taken by Union forces in the Civil War in October 1862. A Confederate force of approximately 1,500 tried to retake Dardanelle in January 1865, failing after a four-hour battle. First Sergeant William Ellis of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry received a Medal of Honor for holding his position despite multiple wounds.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 949 square miles (2,460 km²), of which 930 square miles (2,400 km²) is land and 19 square miles (49 km²) (2.0%) is water.

Adjacent counties

• Pope County (north)
• Conway County (northeast)
• Perry County (east)
• Garland County (southeast)
• Montgomery County (south)
• Scott County (west)
• Logan County (northwest)

National protected areas

• Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge (part)
• Ouachita National Forest (part)
• Ozark National Forest (part)

Demographics

Age pyramid Yell County

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 20,263 people, 7,503 households, and 5,542 families residing in the county.

Human resources

Public safety

The Yell County Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency in the county. The agency is led by the Yell County Sheriff, an official elected by countywide vote every four years. Police departments in Dardanelle, Danville, and Ola provide law enforcement in their respective jurisdictions, with Bellville, Havana, and Plainview contracting with the Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services.

The current sheriff of Yell County is Nick Gault. Gault was elected to office in the 2022 General Election.

The chief officer of the law in Yell County, as in all Arkansas counties, is the sheriff.

Culture and contemporary life

Two homes listed on the National Register of historic Places in Yell County: the Thomas James Cotton House in Dardanelle (left) and the Mitchell House in rural Waltreak

Yell County has several historical homes, structures, and monuments dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the area. The Dardanelle Commercial Historic District preserves the historic commercial hub of Yell County along the Arkansas River. The Mt. Nebo State Park Cabins Historic District preserves ten cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The county also has seven homes, three churches, and two bridges listed on the NRHP.

Upon settlement, Yell County's varied topography created a stratified society, splitting settlers between the more fertile and productive farms of the "lowlands" and the subsistence farming of the steep and less-productive mountain soil of the "uplands". A planter class emerged in the lowlands, and as Dardanelle evolved into a cohesive community, the large landowners moved to town and managed their landholdings from stately homes, similar to the model seen in the Arkansas Delta and the Mississippi Delta. This left the lowlands inhabited largely by poor sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who largely shared economic fortunes with the small farms in the uplands, shifting the "upland/lowland" split to a "town-country" divide based largely on economics.

As mechanization and society evolved and Arkansas became less of a frontier, a wealthy upper class emerged in Dardanelle that came to wield societal, political, and economic power in the county. This society remained relatively closed, with separate social events and often summering on Mount Nebo with other wealthy Arkansans visiting to enjoy the cool mountain breezes. With little of the industrialization that defined the Gilded Age in the Northeast and Midwest, Yell County instead retained an adjusted Old South economic model based on agriculture but adapted to a post-Reconstruction reality.

Education

Public education

Early childhood, elementary and secondary education within Yell County is provided by four public school districts:

• Danville School District
• Dardanelle School District
• Two Rivers School District—formed in 2004 by the consolidation of the former Fourche Valley School District, Ola School District, Perry–Casa School District, and Plainview–Rover School District.
• Western Yell County School District—formed in 1985 by the consolidation of the former Belleville School District and Havana School District.

Dissolved school districts

• Fourche Valley School District
• Ola School District
• Perry–Casa School District
• Plainview-Rover School District
• Havana School District
• Belleville School District
• Carden Bottoms School District

Public libraries

The Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System, is headquartered in Dardanelle and serves multiple counties and consists of one central library and six branch libraries, including the Yell County Library, a branch library in Danville.

Communities

Cities

• Belleville
• Danville (county seat)
• Dardanelle (county seat)
• Havana
• Ola
• Plainview

Town

• Corinth

Census-designated places

• Centerville
• Rover

Unincorporated communities

• Alpha
• Aly
• Ard
• Bluffton
• Briggsville
• Chickalah
• Goodie Gorn Creek
• Gravelly
• Mount George
• New Neely
• Onyx
• Pleasant Hill
• Shark
• Sulphur Springs
• Wing

Townships

Townships in Arkansas are the divisions of a county. Each township includes unincorporated areas; some may have incorporated cities or towns within part of their boundaries. Arkansas townships have limited purposes in modern times. However, the United States Census does list Arkansas population based on townships (sometimes referred to as "county subdivisions" or "minor civil divisions"). Townships are also of value for historical purposes in terms of genealogical research. Each town or city is within one or more townships in an Arkansas county based on census maps and publications. The townships of Yell County are listed below; listed in parentheses are the cities, towns, and/or census-designated places that are fully or partially inside the township.

Infrastructure

Major highways

• Highway 7
• Highway 10
• Highway 27
• Highway 28
• Highway 60
• Highway 80
• Highway 154

Notable people

• Ray R. Allen (1920–2010), public official in Alexandria, Louisiana, was born in Yell County
• John Daly, professional golfer
• Arthur Hunnicutt, Academy Award-nominated Western Actor
• Kelly Ring, WTVT news anchor
• Johnny Sain, Major League Baseball player
• William L. Spicer, Republican state chairman, 1962–1964, was born in Yell County, but owned a chain of drive-in theaters in Fort Smith
• Cousins Jim Walkup (left-handed pitcher), and Jim Walkup (right-handed pitcher), MLB pitchers
• James Lee Witt, former FEMA Director
• Henry C. Bruton, Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, born in Belleville, Arkansas in 1905
• Jacob Lofland, American actor
• Timothy Balarabe, jazz musician

See also

In Spanish: Condado de Yell para niños