Yell County is a county in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, its 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 Jeans. 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 riverbottom 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" re-establishing Cherokee title of 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 about 1,500 men 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 , of which (2.0%) are covered by 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

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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.

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
  • Sulphur Springs
  • Wing

Townships

  • Birta
  • Bluffton
  • Briggsville
  • Centerville
  • Chula
  • Compton
  • Crawford
  • Danville (Corinth, Danville)
  • Dardanelle (Dardanelle)
  • Dutch Creek
  • Ferguson (Belleville)
  • Galla Rock
  • Gilkey
  • Gravelly Hill
  • Herring
  • Ions Creek
  • Lamar (Plainview)
  • Magazine
  • Mason
  • Mountain
  • Prairie
  • Richland
  • Riley (Havana)
  • Rover
  • Sulphur Springs
  • Ward (Ola)
  • Waveland

Infrastructure

Major highways

  • 20px Highway 7
  • 20px Highway 10
  • 20px Highway 27
  • 20px Highway 28
  • 20px Highway 60
  • 20px Highway 80
  • 25px Highway 154

Notable people

  • John Daly, professional golfer
  • Arthur Hunnicutt, Academy Award-nominated Western Actor
  • 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

See also

  • List of lakes in Yell County, Arkansas
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Yell County, Arkansas

References

  • Yell County official website
  • Yell County, Arkansas entry on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture