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Arkansas Counties

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Arkansas Counties

There are 75 Counties in the State of Arkansas which vary from the rich Delta farmlands of the Mississippi River valley to the rolling hills and gently sloped mountains of the Ozarks and Ouachitas

Craighead County, Arkansas

Craighead County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Jonesboro
Year Organized: 1859
Square Miles: 711

Court House:

511 Union Street
County Courthouse
Jonesboro, AR 72401-2836

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Craighead is named for Senator Thomas Craighead, who ironically opposed the creation of the new county.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created in February 19, 1859, from parts of Greene, Mississippi and Poinsett counties and was named from Thomas H. Craighead, who represented Mississippi and Crittenden counties in the state legislature. Craighead County has two county seats, Jonesboro and Lake City. The landscape of Craighead County is flat, fertile farmland with rising and falling hills with Crowley's Ridge in the center. The courthouse in Jonesboro stands on the site of a skirmish between two companies of Confederates and a detachment of a federal regiment during the Battle of Jonesboro in August 1863. The statue of a doughboy on the courthouse lawn is the first monument erected in the South to soldiers and sailors of World War I. Another marker recognizes a county resident, Hattie Caraway, who was the first woman elected to the United States Senate, the first woman to preside over the Senate, and the first woman chairman of a Senate committee. The Lake City courthouse offices have been moved to a more modern and convenient location; however, the original courthouse building still stands. It is an all-wood; two storied with three small one-story brick wings that were added in 1934 when the companion county courthouse in Jonesboro was remodeled. A bandstand from which many political speeches have been made stands in the courtyard. Arkansas State University, which continues to grow and is the county's largest employer, is located in Jonesboro. The Convocation Center located on the campus is used for sports, concerts, live theatre, conferences and other attractions. In historic downtown, Jonesboro's civic auditorium, a renovated movie theatre built in 1926, provides a facility for concerts, Broadway shows, nationally known speakers, and community theatre productions. Citizens in Craighead County revel in its status as the "Capital City of Northeast Arkansas" with a Main Street Jonesboro celebration in May of each year, which brings hundreds of people into the county.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Greene County
Northeast: Dunklin County, Mo.
East: Mississippi County
South: Poinsett County
Southwest: Jackson County
Northwest: Lawrence County

Cities and Towns:

- Bay	city	Incorporated Area
- Black Oak	town	Incorporated Area
- Bono	city	Incorporated Area
- Brookland	town	Incorporated Area
- Caraway	town	Incorporated Area
- Cash	town	Incorporated Area
- Egypt	town	Incorporated Area
- Jonesboro (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Lake City	town	Incorporated Area
- Monette	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."