711 E. Union Avenue
Wynne, Arkansas
870-238-4100

The Cross County Museum and Archives is operated by the Cross County Historical Society and is located in a former four room elementary school building that was built in 1937. The Cross County Historical Society began in 1972 with 38 charter members and held all its artifacts and records in one room of the current courthouse. The museum building is the only building that remains of what was once the community of Wynne’s educational campus, with all the other buildings being torn down. After being used as a school into early 1960s, the building reverted to County ownership and was rented out for use as a mental health center. In 2005, Cross County Judge Kenneth Witcher was approached by a group of concerned citizens that were concerned that the one room in the courthouse was consistently locked and was insufficient to hold and display all the material that the Society had gathered. The judge decided to turn the building over for use a museum after which the Cross County Historical Society was reactivated. After approximately a year of rehabilitation in which three of the four original classrooms were restored to their original size, the building was ready for the Society’s artifacts to be transferred to their new location.

These three restored former classrooms now contain museum galleries. In one, in addition to serving as a meeting room, there is a diorama of a turn of the 20th century parlor, a depression era kitchen, and a country store. In a second gallery the focus is on early Cross County history. Exhibits include a prehistoric mastodon tooth and fossils from when the area was under an ocean. The Native American Mound Builder culture exhibit includes artifacts such as pottery, beads, and tools that were donated from a personal collection that was excavated from a mound in the county. There are also early agricultural representations including horse and mule harnesses, wooden implements, and iron tools from the era when cotton, peach and apple orchards were the main agricultural staples of the region. In the third gallery there is railroad memorabilia testifying to the fact that Wynne was a railroad town, a wall dedicated to the County’s veterans with uniforms from the different wars that they served in, and the history of the county’s communities and the history of the County’s old schools that no longer exist. The fourth room retains the mental health institution layout and includes an office as well as rooms for genealogical records and research, county maps, newspaper files, Cross County archives, and a small library.

The Cross County Historical Society has embarked on a new project scheduled to be completed in the near future. The Society is refurbishing the New Hope School, an early 20th century two room school house. One room will be restored to how the classroom once looked while the other will become a country store/welcome/information center that should serve the region well since the building sits on a National Scenic Byway, the Arkansas Scenic Byway, Crowley’s Ridge Parkway, and the busy route to Village Creek State Park.

greatriverroad.com acknowledges valuable aid from Richard Harkness, Ex-Officio board member of the Cross County Historical Society for help with this page.

Visiting the Cross County Museum and Archives
Monday - Friday: 10 am - 4 pm
There is no charge to visit the Cross County Museum and Archives.