Post Offices

Mail delivery first began in North America during the seventeenth century. Prior to the availability of the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, or worldwide web, mail served as the only means of written communication between different locales. The United States’ early mail system proved to be primitive, slow, and often undependable. But as the nation grew, so did its postal system. As American settlers moved west and occupied new lands, their commerce and communication needs demanded dependable, affordable mail service. One of the new places served by the nation’s postal service was Arkansas.

Information about Arkansas post offices on this webpage includes the name of the post office, date of establishment, location, and county. Sources used in compiling this data include official postal service records, “Records of Appointments of Postmasters, Arkansas, 1832-1871” and “Geographic Site Location Reports, 1852-1945.” Also utilized were various editions of the Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Democrat, several volumes of the Territorial Papers of the United States, and the Works Projects Administration’s “List of Post Offices in Arkansas 1817-1874, Inclusive.” The most comprehensive printed compilation of post office information is found in Arkansas History Commission Archival Manager Russell Baker’s Arkansas Post Offices from Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory, 1832-1990, published by the Arkansas Genealogical Society.