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State hub · Arkansas
Arkansas has few mining ghost towns and many lost river towns. The Mississippi washed away Napoleon, the Desha County seat until 1874, and erosion took the waterfront of Arkansas Post, the first capital of Arkansas Territory. Hopefield, the ferry landing across from Memphis, was burned in the Civil War, rebuilt, and then worn down by yellow fever and the river. Other towns died when the roads went elsewhere: Davidsonville, home of the territory's first post office, was bypassed by the Southwest Trail and nearly empty by statehood in 1836, and Chalk Bluff's people moved to the railroad town of St. Francis.
In the Ozarks, zinc built Rush, which boomed during World War I and lost its last mine in 1931. A sawmill built Graysonia on the Antoine River, and Coin Harvey's resort at Monte Ne now lies mostly under Beaver Lake. Other reservoirs drowned more: Wikipedia's list puts Dubuque and Kingdon Springs under Bull Shoals Lake and Crossroads under Lake Maumelle. Sneed, a farm community in Jackson County, was almost completely destroyed by the state's only documented F5 tornado on April 10, 1929.
What survives is thin. Rush keeps a general store, a smelter and a row of houses inside Buffalo National River. At Davidsonville, Arkansas Post, Chalk Bluff and Cadron, parks with trails and markers stand on the townsites. For most other sites in our index we have not verified what is left.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideBenton County
A health resort and planned town built by the lawyer and author William "Coin" Harvey, with log hotels, a gondola and a pyramid that was never…
GuideDesha County
A river port and county seat where the Arkansas meets the Mississippi. War damaged it, a Union canal turned the river against it, and by 1874 the…
GuidePope County
A hillbilly-themed roadside stop on Scenic Highway 7, "population 7, countin' one coon dog." It opened in 1961, closed in 2004 and now sits fenced…
GuideJackson County
A farming community north of Swifton that took the full force of Arkansas's only documented F5 tornado on April 10, 1929. Some of it was rebuilt, but…
GuideMarion County
Prospectors came looking for silver and found zinc. Rush boomed with World War I, emptied after it, and now sits inside Buffalo National River with…
GuideClark County
A company sawmill town that cut 150,000 board feet a day during World War I and was empty by 1950. The townsite is private timberland now, and this…
GuideClay County
A ferry crossing and village where the St. Francis River cuts through Crowley's Ridge. It saw Civil War fighting in 1862 and 1863, and its people…
GuideArkansas County
The oldest European settlement in Arkansas and the first capital of Arkansas Territory. It lost the capital in 1821, the county seat in 1855 and its…
GuideFaulkner County
A frontier town laid out in 1818 where Cadron Creek meets the Arkansas River. It nearly became the territorial capital, held a county seat twice, and…
GuideRandolph County
A river town of the 1810s and 1820s that held Arkansas's first post office, first courthouse and first federal land office. It was empty by statehood…
Watch
Ozark zinc camps, lost river towns, and frontier history in public parks. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Marion County
Zinc camp on Rush Creek, where a smelter built in 1886 to recover silver gave off zinc fumes instead. The boom peaked in World War I and the last Morning Star mine closed in 1931. Inside Buffalo National River, the store, blacksmith shop, smelter and House Row still stand, and visitors can drive through or walk the Morning Star loop and Mine Level Trail.
Randolph County
Black River town of 1815 with Arkansas Territory's first post office, opened in 1817, and its first courthouse, built in 1822. Bypassed when the Southwest Trail moved to higher ground, it was essentially abandoned by 1836. Little stands above ground; Davidsonville Historic State Park has a townsite trail with steel "ghost structures" that show the scale of the town, and finds from its digs.
Arkansas County
French trading post of 1686 and the first capital of Arkansas Territory, from 1819 to 1821. The town was shelled in the January 1863 battle for Fort Hindman and was rural after the war. The waterfront has eroded away, but an early 1800s well and cistern and Confederate trenches survive. Grounds open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset.
Clay County
Ferry town where the St. Francis River cuts through Crowley's Ridge, the site of several Civil War skirmishes, the most significant on May 1 and 2, 1863. Wikipedia says it was abandoned after the war; Delta Byways says it faded after 1882, when the railroad crossed the river two miles south and St. Francis grew. Clay County runs Chalk Bluff Battlefield Park, with a walking trail and interpretive markers, on a state natural area.
Faulkner County
River landing on the Arkansas, where Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole people stopped during their removal west in the 1830s, and later a Butterfield Overland Mail station. The blockhouse is a replica, rebuilt in 1998 after a fire. The 150-acre park, with trails, interpretive signs and Native American graves, is run by the City of Conway under a lease from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Benton County
William "Coin" Harvey's resort east of Rogers, founded in 1900 and opened in 1901, with log hotels and a concrete amphitheater meant as the base of a pyramid that was never built. Beaver Lake covered most of it by 1966, and in 2023 the Army Corps of Engineers tore down the Oklahoma Row tower and foundation. A YouTube visit posted September 27, 2026 shows broken concrete where Oklahoma Row stood, a four-sided fireplace and foundations on the shore, and the amphitheater's back wall just above a low lake.
Clark County
Sawmill town on the Antoine River, named for lumberman William Grayson. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas dates the mill's move there to 1907; Wikipedia gives 1902, the year Grayson and Nelson McLeod took control of the company. The mill closed in the Depression, its equipment went to Delight in 1937 and the post office closed in 1950. County parcel records with August and September 2026 assessor dates show the townsite and the land around it in private hands, and a YouTube uploader wrote in September 2024 that the area was closed to the public.
Desha County
River port where the Arkansas meets the Mississippi, seat of Desha County until 1874, from 1838 by Wikipedia's account or 1843 by the Encyclopedia of Arkansas's. Its Marine Hospital began falling into the river in 1868, and Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi that the town had washed away. The townsite is under the river. On a boat trip in January 2009, the newest report we found, visitors found part of the town cemetery on Cat Island, reachable only by boat; who owns the island and the bank is not verified.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Arkansas index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
The road into Rush crosses two creeks that heavy rain can flood. The park's campground listing says to watch conditions at Rush Creek and never to try a flooded crossing. Monte Ne works the other way: its amphitheater and foundations show only when Beaver Lake is low, usually in a late fall or winter drought; Only In Arkansas wrote in 2022 that the amphitheater needs the lake below 1,111 feet. Check the lake level before you drive.
Tick bites are a real risk in Arkansas woods and fields. The Department of Health counted 70 confirmed cases of alpha-gal syndrome, the tick-bite meat allergy, in 2023 and 332 by 2025. Wear long trousers and check for ticks after any walk in the woods. Fall is also hunting season: modern gun deer season opens November 14, 2026 in every zone and, with breaks in most zones, runs to December 28, so wear something bright.
Entering posted land without the written consent of the owner or lessee is illegal in Arkansas. Land can be posted with signs or with vertical purple paint marks at least 8 inches long, 3 to 5 feet off the ground, on trees or posts. The parks named on this page are public; for most other sites in our index we have not checked who owns the land.
Rush and Arkansas Post are National Park Service land, where metal detectors are banned and digging for or removing artifacts is prohibited; violations can be prosecuted as a federal felony. Graves are protected everywhere: under Act 753 of 1991, as amended in 1999, desecrating a human grave on private or public land is a Class D felony on a first offense.
FAQ
No one has a firm count. Wikipedia's list, which calls itself incomplete, names more than 80 places, from barren sites to towns whose population has fallen to a fifth or less. Our index lists 57 sites in 33 counties; 49 of them have coordinates on our map. Scott and Washington counties have the most, with four each.
Rush, on the Buffalo National River southeast of Yellville, has the most standing buildings of the towns on this page: the Taylor-Medley General Store, the 1925 blacksmith shop, the smelter and a row of houses, with a quarter-mile interpretive loop and a 1.5-mile, one-way trail past fenced mine entrances. For territorial history, Davidsonville and Arkansas Post are parks on the townsites, though little of either town stands.
Cadron Settlement, near Conway, is about 50 minutes from downtown, and Lewisburg, the Conway County seat until 1883, about an hour. Racket Ridge and Arkansas Post take about two hours, Graysonia about two and a half, and Napoleon and Rush about three. These are routed estimates. The route to Napoleon ends about a mile from its mapped site, which now lies in the river, and Graysonia's time includes the last two miles on a private track, which you shouldn't drive without the owner's permission.
Only parts of it. Most of the resort has been under Beaver Lake since the 1960s, and the Army Corps of Engineers tore down the three-story Oklahoma Row tower, the most prominent ruin above the water, in February 2023, and removed its foundation that year. The amphitheater and the retaining wall for Coin Harvey's pyramid appear when the lake drops. Wikipedia says his tomb is on private property but can be seen from the Monte Ne boat launch. A YouTube visit posted September 27, 2026 shows two visitors walking the shore among broken concrete, foundations and a four-sided fireplace, swimmers and boats nearby, and the top of the amphitheater just above the low lake; at the tomb, the uploader found a no-trespassing sign.
Some are. Wikipedia puts Coin Harvey's tomb at Monte Ne on private property, and Only In Arkansas said in 2022 that most land around the amphitheater is private. Rush and Arkansas Post are run by the National Park Service, Davidsonville is a state park, Chalk Bluff is a battlefield park that Clay County runs on a state natural area, and Cadron Settlement is a city park on Corps of Engineers land. We have not checked land ownership for most other sites in our index, and in Arkansas posted land, including land marked with purple paint, needs the written consent of the owner or lessee.
Abandoned