Visitors Guide to Cross County, Arkansas

Cross County has been inhabited continuously since at least 1000 C.E. There is evidence of a Native American village located at Parkin Archeological State Park. The villagers was surrounded by a moat and a log palisade wall for protection and there were agricultural fields for growing corn, beans, and other crops. A large platform mound, on the bank of the river, can still be seen. Many scholars believe the Parkin site is the Native Indian village of Casqui visited by the expedition of Hernando de Soto in 1541, and written about in his chronicles.

European settlers moved into the area in the early 1800s. In 1824, the U.S. Congress authorized construction of the Memphis to Little Rock Road. Completed in 1829, the road provided the first real access to the area. Cross County itself began during the Civil War when an act of the Arkansas General Assembly was passed in1862. The county was formed from parts out of Crittenden and St. Francis Counties. The county is named after Colonel David C. Cross, an officer of the Confederate Army who came to the area in the 1840s. Eventually he was to own eighty five thousand acres of land making him a wealthy man and the county’s most extensive landowner.

Cross County has had five county seats. The town of Wittsburg was designated as the first county seat, but due to Union forces patrolling the area during the Civil War, county business could not be conducted there. In April, 1863 the town of Pineville was selected as the county seat. There was no courthouse and business was conducted at the home of Dr. B. D. McClaran, the first County Clerk. In May 1865 the town of Cleburne was selected as the next county seat. Cleburne, named after Patrick R. Cleburne, a Confederate general from Helena, Arkansas who had been Colonel Cross's commander in the Civil War. The town was located in the center of the county with Colonel Cross deeding the center block in the town to the county on which to build a courthouse. Until a courthouse was built Cross’ residence was used as a temporary courthouse. Cleburne’s reign as county seat lasted only until 1868. The county seat shifted back to Wittsburg which had become a thriving river port and remained there until 1884.

In 1882 when the Helena branch of the Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad was completed. With the arrival of the railroad Wittsburg began to decline as trains replaced steamboats. Many businesses and professionals moved to Vanndale, which was located along the new railroad. In 1884 an election was held and Vanndale was selected as the next county seat. The first courthouse in Vanndale was built in 1888. Just south of Vanndale the town of Wynne was growing. Wynne started in 1882 when a train derailed leaving one boxcar without wheels and off the tracks. The boxcar was placed upright and was designated Wynne Station after Captain Jessie W. Wynne, a celebrated Civil War veteran and a prominent businessman and banker in nearby Forrest City. When the east-west railroad line was completed, it crossed the north-south line near the boxcar, and the name "Wynne Junction" became well known in the area. In 1888, the "Junction" part of the name was dropped, and the town of Wynne was incorporated. By the 1890s, the railroad traffic and the resulting activity in Wynne made it a more vibrant town than the town of Vanndale. In 1904 another election was held. Wynne prevailed and has remained the county seat of Cross County ever since.

In the early 1900s, a saw mill was established at the Parkin Archeological State Park site by the Northern Ohio Cooperage and Lumber Company. Some of the mill workers built houses and lived next to the factory. The saw mill operated at the site until the Great Depression. By the beginning of World War 2 there were 15 one-room and two-room schoolhouses providing education for children in Parkin, a town of less than 2,000 citizens. Three-quarters of the sawmill workforce were African-American and the Northern Ohio School was built for their children. Today, the school is the only one of these early Parkin structures still standing and provided first through eighth grade educations until 1948.

With the advent of the U.S. Highway System in the 1920s and 30s, US-64 was built west from Memphis, through Wynne, and to points west. Also, the north-south Arkansas Highway 1 was built through Wynne, making it an important highway crossroads for several decades, in addition to being a railroad town. But since the advent of the Interstate Highway System, I-40 has reduced the importance of Wynne.

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