Yell County, Arkansas

Yell County is a county in Arkansas, United States, roughly 65 miles west of Little Rock in the
west-central part of the state. It had a population of 20,263 at the 2020 census, an estimated
20,134 by 2024, and covers 930 square miles (2,409 km2) centred near 34°59′N 93°27′W.

Dardanelle is the county seat for the county’s eastern district; its postal code is 72834.
Danville serves as county seat for the western district — Yell County is one of only a
handful of Arkansas counties with two seats, each running its own courthouse. The county holds 6
cities, 1 incorporated town and a scatter of unincorporated communities, and it runs on Central
Time.

Towns & Villages in Yell County

Yell County has 21 named places on record: 7 incorporated cities and towns, split between the
two county-seat districts, and 14 unincorporated communities with no local government of their
own. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural communities
with no formal boundary.

An earlier version of this page listed dozens of additional names — Bethel, Carden
Bottoms, Chalybeate Springs, Fourche Valley, Kingston, Lakeview, Marvinville, Mosley, Old Neely,
Petit Jean, Pisgah, Quarry Heights, Rover, Stafford, Stillwater, Walnut Grove, Waveland, Whitehall
and more — without population or place-type data. Several of those names duplicate Yell
County township names rather than distinct settlements, and none could be independently confirmed
as a standing community; they are left off this list rather than republished as guesses.

Townships

Yell County still carries 27 civil townships, a 19th-century layer of local administration that
Arkansas never abolished: Birta, Bluffton, Briggsville, Centerville, Chula, Compton, Crawford,
Danville, Dardanelle, Dutch Creek, Ferguson, Galla Rock, Gilkey, Gravelly Hill, Herring, Ions
Creek, Lamar, Magazine, Mason, Mountain, Prairie, Richland, Riley, Rover, Sulphur Springs, Ward
and Waveland. Danville Township and Dardanelle Township hold the county’s two seats and give
the dual-courthouse system its geographic logic; the Census Bureau does not publish current
population figures broken out by individual township here, so no per-township count is given
below rather than an invented one.

ZIP Codes

• 72834 — Dardanelle (the county’s most populous ZIP)
• 72833 — Danville
• 72853 — Ola
• 72857 — Plainview
• 72824 — Belleville (also serves Corinth)
• 72842 — Havana

Alpha, Aly, Ard, Bluffton, Briggsville, Chickalah, Goodie Gorn Creek, Gravelly, Mount George,
New Neely, Onyx, Pleasant Hill, Sulphur Springs and Wing have no ZIP code of their own; mail there
is delivered under the nearest incorporated town’s code.

Geography

Yell County straddles the line between the Arkansas River Valley and the Ouachita Mountains.
Of its 930 square miles, 911 are land and 19 are water, most of it Lake Dardanelle, a hydropower
reservoir on the Arkansas River formed by the Dardanelle Lock and Dam in the 1960s. Mount Nebo, a
1,755-foot flat-topped peak about 5 miles west of Dardanelle, overlooks the lake and the river
valley from a state park with cabins, campsites and hiking trails. The Petit Jean River and the
Fourche La Fave River both cross the county, and Yell County holds land inside the Ozark-St.
Francis and Ouachita national forests, plus Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge on a horseshoe
bend of the Arkansas River.

Pope County lies to the north, Conway County to the northeast, Perry County to the east,
Garland County to the southeast, Montgomery County to the south, Scott County to the southwest,
and Logan County to the west. Pope County
and Logan County both border Yell County
directly; Conway, Perry, Garland, Montgomery and Scott counties do not yet have a live page on
this site.

Demographics

Yell County had a population of 20,263 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 20,134 residents by 2024, essentially flat. Dardanelle and Danville are by far the two
largest communities, together holding roughly a third of the county’s population. Median
household income runs $55,934, below Arkansas’s statewide figure of $58,700 (2023 ACS).
Population density works out to roughly 22 people per square mile of land, low even for rural
Arkansas, reflecting the county’s mix of national forest, mountain terrain and reservoir.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing employs the most Yell County workers, about 2,393 people, followed by health care
and social assistance at 1,090 and retail trade at 779. Tyson Foods runs a poultry processing
plant in Dardanelle, and poultry farming and processing is the primary industry around Danville as
well. Chambers Bank, a regional bank with locations across western Arkansas, is headquartered in
Danville. Dardanelle’s other major employers include a Walmart Supercenter and the Dardanelle
Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Lake Dardanelle and Mount Nebo State Park draw fishing,
camping and hiking visitors and support a smaller tourism trade around both towns.

History

Arkansas’s territorial legislature established Yell County on December 5, 1840, from
portions of Scott and Pope counties. It was named for Archibald Yell, Arkansas’s first
member of the United States House of Representatives and its second governor, who was killed in
action at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War in 1847.

Before the Civil War, Yell County developed a divided economy: fertile river-bottom
“lowlands” near Dardanelle supported large plantation-style farms worked by enslaved
labor, while the mountainous “uplands” toward Danville held smaller subsistence farms.
A planter class based in Dardanelle managed estates from town homes, and the county carried an
adjusted Old South agricultural economy into the post-Reconstruction era. The dual county-seat
system, with a courthouse in both Dardanelle and Danville, dates to this early divide between the
county’s eastern and western districts.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Yell County. Arkansas Highways 7, 10, 27, 28, 60, 80 and 154 carry
the county’s through traffic; Highway 7 runs north-south past Dardanelle as part of the
Scenic 7 Byway, described as roughly halfway between the Buffalo River and Hot Springs.

• Russellville — directly across the Arkansas River from Dardanelle
• Fort Smith — about 70 miles west
• Little Rock — about 75 miles east
• Hot Springs — about 60 miles south

Clinton National Airport in Little Rock is the nearest major commercial airport. Danville
Municipal Airport, a general-aviation field averaging about 67 flights a week, serves the
county’s western district. No Amtrak line runs through Yell County; the nearest station is
in Little Rock.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Yell County located?
It sits in west-central Arkansas, between the Arkansas River Valley and the Ouachita Mountains,
about 65 miles west of Little Rock.

What is the population of Yell County?
20,263 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 20,134.

How big is Yell County?
930 square miles (2,409 km2), of which 911 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Yell County?
Yell County has two: Dardanelle for the eastern district and Danville for the western district,
each with its own courthouse.

How many towns and villages are in Yell County?
Seven incorporated places — Dardanelle, Danville, Ola, Plainview, Belleville, Havana and
Corinth — plus 14 unincorporated communities including Bluffton, Gravelly and Sulphur
Springs.

What ZIP codes does Yell County use?
72834 for Dardanelle, 72833 for Danville, 72853 for Ola, 72857 for Plainview, 72824 for Belleville
and Corinth, and 72842 for Havana.

What is Yell County known for?
Its two county seats, Lake Dardanelle and Mount Nebo State Park, and its namesake Archibald Yell,
who died leading Arkansas troops at the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Arkansas.