Lonoke County, Arkansas

Lonoke County is a county in Arkansas, United States, in the Central Arkansas region east of Little Rock. It had a population of 74,015 at the 2020 census and covers 771 square miles (1,997 km2) centred near 34°47′N 91°55′W.

Lonoke is the county seat, and its postal code is 72086. The county has 7 incorporated cities, 3 incorporated towns, and one partial census-designated place, plus a scatter of unincorporated communities. It sits in the Central time zone.

Towns & Villages in Lonoke County

Lonoke County has 10 incorporated places — 7 cities and 3 towns — and part of one census-designated place, along with several older unincorporated communities that survive as crossroads or rail-siding names. Cabot, in the county’s northwest corner, is by far the largest place and effectively a bedroom suburb of Little Rock; the older river-and-rail towns along U.S. 70 and the Union Pacific line remain smaller.

Scott is a census-designated place that straddles the Lonoke–Pulaski county line east of Little Rock; its population is tallied for Pulaski County, so no separate Lonoke-side figure is published. Toltec, near the Arkansas River in the county’s south, takes its name from the Toltec Mounds archeological site nearby, not the Mexican civilization — the mounds were built by Native peoples of the Plum Bayou culture around 700–950 AD. Brownsville, on U.S. 70 near modern Lonoke, was the original county seat before it was moved.

ZIP Codes

• 72086 — Lonoke (also serves Brownsville)
• 72023 — Cabot
• 72176 — Ward
• 72007 — Austin
• 72046 — England (also serves Toltec)
• 72024 — Carlisle
• 72072 — Humnoke
• 72083 — Keo
• 72031 — Coy
• 72063 — Allport
• 72142 — Scott

Smaller unincorporated communities such as Bayou Meto, Wattensaw, Furlow and South Bend use the ZIP of their nearest post office town rather than a code of their own.

Geography

Lonoke County lies in the Arkansas Delta and Grand Prairie, a flat, low-lying landscape of rice and soybean fields cut by bayous. The Arkansas River forms part of the county’s southern boundary, and Bayou Meto drains much of the county’s centre on its way south to the river. The Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area covers a large tract of bottomland hardwood forest in the north. The county borders Faulkner County to the north, White County to the northeast, Prairie County to the east, Arkansas County to the southeast, Jefferson County to the south, and Pulaski County, home to Little Rock, to the west.

Demographics

Lonoke County’s population was 74,015 at the 2020 census, up from 68,356 in 2010. Cabot (26,569) and Ward (6,052) are the two largest communities; together they hold more than 40 percent of the county’s people, reflecting the northwest corner’s growth as a Little Rock–North Little Rock commuter area. Median household income runs close to the Arkansas median of $58,700, somewhat higher than the state figure in the Cabot–Ward corridor and lower in the older Grand Prairie towns to the south and east. Population density is about 96 people per square mile.

Economy & Local Life

Agriculture still anchors the southern and eastern parts of the county — rice, soybeans and cattle on the Grand Prairie, a shift that began around 1904 when falling cotton prices and rice-friendly soils pushed farmers to convert. The northwest, around Cabot and Ward, has grown into a retail and light-industrial extension of the Little Rock metro, with the Cabot School District among the county’s largest employers. England hosts a small municipal airport, and Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park draws visitors interested in the Plum Bayou mound-building culture.

History

Lonoke County was formed on April 16, 1873, from parts of Pulaski and Prairie counties. Its name is a phonetic respelling of “lone oak,” after a large solitary oak tree that a surveyor used as a landmark while laying out the route of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad. During both World Wars, the county was home to Eberts Field, a U.S. Army training airfield near Lonoke. The Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery, near England, and the Plantation Agriculture Museum, in Scott, preserve two very different chapters of the county’s past — wartime and plantation-era farming.

Getting There

Interstate 40 crosses the county’s northwest corner through Cabot and Ward; U.S. 70 and U.S. 165 run the length of the county from Little Rock through Lonoke and England toward the Arkansas Delta. State highways 5, 15, 31, 38 and 89 connect the smaller towns.

• Little Rock — 20 miles west
• North Little Rock — 22 miles northwest
• Stuttgart — 30 miles southeast
• Searcy — 25 miles north

The nearest commercial airport is Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lonoke County, Arkansas?
It is in Central Arkansas, immediately east of Little Rock and Pulaski County.

What is the population of Lonoke County?
74,015 as of the 2020 census.

How big is Lonoke County?
771 square miles (1,997 km2).

What is the county seat of Lonoke County?
Lonoke is the county seat; Cabot is the largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Lonoke County?
Ten incorporated places — seven cities and three towns — plus part of the Scott census-designated place.

What ZIP codes are in Lonoke County?
Codes include 72086 (Lonoke), 72023 (Cabot), 72176 (Ward), 72007 (Austin), 72046 (England), 72024 (Carlisle), 72072 (Humnoke), 72083 (Keo), 72031 (Coy), 72063 (Allport) and 72142 (Scott).

Why is it called Lonoke County?
The name is a phonetic spelling of “lone oak,” a single tree a railroad surveyor used as a landmark when the county was formed in 1873.

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