Visitors Guide to Harrisburg, Arkansas
Lake Poinsett State Park
Harrisburg is situated on Crowley’s Ridge, a highland geologic anomaly that begins in southeast Missouri and ends in south central Arkansas, and is the county seat of Poinsett County. Poinsett County was established on February 27, 1838. It was named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, a statesman, scientist, and botanist. Poinsett was the Secretary of War in U.S. President Martin Van Buren’s administration. He was also a horticulturist of note and is remembered foremost for his introduction of a new flower, the poinsettia, into the United States. Although there were a few communities, there were no towns in the area when Poinsett County was created. William Harris was named the first county judge and the first terms of the county court and other county business was conducted at his home until a permanent seat could be selected. A site for the new county seat was selected about four miles north of Judge Harris’s home and was named Bolivar after General Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan military leader who was instrumental in the revolutions against the Spanish empire. In the 1850s there was agitation to move the county seat to the center of the county. A hotly contested election in 1856 resulted in the decision to move the seat even though the new location was only three miles south of Bolivar. Today all that remains of Bolivar is an old cemetery.
After the election the new county seat was laid out and named Harrisburg, named after Benjamin Harris, who was the son of the first county judge and who gave the land on which the new courthouse was built. The Harris family home still exists on Jackson Street. The area was conducive to agriculture and timber industries but its growth was hindered by its remote location and the necessity of traveling through swamps and heavily wooded areas to reach the community. During the Civil War, Harrisburg remained loyal to the South and was the attention of Union cavalry soldiers who galloped into town and burned most of the stores in 1862.
The St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad arrived in 1882, causing a great upswing in the town’s economy. Harrisburg was legally incorporated in 1883. There is little left of the original community. The Poinsett County Courthouse burned in 1887 along with nearly all public records. A new struggle ensued over the location of the new courthouse, as residents from other towns sought to move the location of the courthouse away from Harrisburg, which was remote and difficult to get to. The existing courthouse was built in 1918. In the early 1900s, farming flourished in the Harrisburg area with cotton plantations and rice farms being the most common. A steady decline in agricultural prices, along with natural disasters like floods, devastated the town in the late 1920s and 1930s. The Poinsett County Fair Association, organized in the early 1900s in Harrisburg, discontinued the county fair in 1942 because of World War II. The fairgrounds were used as a prisoner-of-war camp to house German soldiers. Many of the prisoners helped rebuild the local economy by working in the cotton and rice fields.
Harrisburg is twenty miles south of Jonesboro, home of Arizona State University, a growing metropolitan area. The proximity of Harrisburg to amenities in Jonesboro has made Harrisburg a desirable location for residents and it is quickly becoming a bedroom community. Lake Poinsett State Park is located three miles south of the city limits. The park offers camping and fishing opportunities year round.
Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce - The official website of the Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce.
