Native Americans first inhabited present-day Yell County and the Arkansas River Valley for thousands of years prior to European colonization. They used the open, fertile floodplain of the Arkansas River for hunting grounds and later farming settlements. During the Thomas Jefferson and Indian Removal era, many Cherokee were voluntarily relocating from Georgia along the Arkansas River, including in Yell County, between 1775 and 1786. A large Cherokee reservation across the Arkansas River from Yell County was established in 1815 to encourage further voluntary relocation from Georgia.
The area presently encompassed as Yell County was first settled by European settlers when James Carden built a house in 1819 among Cherokee farms in the Dardanelle Bottoms, at the confluence of the Arkansas and Petit Jean rivers.[3] Lands south of the Arkansas River had been deeded to the Choctaw in the 1820s when they removed from their homelands east of the Mississippi River, but white settlement and Cherokee relocation continued apace into the 1820s. The peoples competed over the prime river-bottom lands.
In June 1823, a meeting between numerous Cherokee chiefs and acting Territorial Governor Robert Crittenden was held under two large oak trees. Long believed by many to result in a "Council Oaks Treaty" reestablishing Cherokee title of 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) north of the Arkansas River, Crittenden had no treaty-making authority and the meeting ended with no agreement other than each party sending separate letters to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun.[4][5][6]
Some Cherokee remained on their farms south of the river, the group identifying itself as Black Dutch, intermarrying and assimilating with the area's white settlers.[7]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 949 square miles (2,460 km2), of which 930 square miles (2,400 km2) is land and 19 square miles (49 km2) (2.0%) is water.[8]
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 20,263 people, 7,503 households, and 5,542 families residing in the county.
2000 census
As of the 2000 census,[16] there were 21,139 people, 7,922 households, and 5,814 families residing in the county. The population density was 23 people per square mile (8.9 people/km2). There were 9,157 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile (3.9/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 86.63% White, 1.47% Black or African American, 0.58% Native American, 0.69% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 8.99% from other races, and 1.62% from two or more races. 12.73% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 12.00% reported speaking Spanish at home.[17]
There were 7,922 households, out of which 33.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.50% were married couples living together, 10.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.60% were non-families. 23.20% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.04.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.80% under the age of 18, 8.90% from 18 to 24, 28.30% from 25 to 44, 22.00% from 45 to 64, and 15.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.30 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $28,916, and the median income for a family was $33,409. Males had a median income of $23,172 versus $18,148 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,383. About 11.70% of families and 15.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.20% of those under age 18 and 12.80% of those age 65 or over.
The Yell County Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency in the county. The agency is led by the Yell County Sheriff, an official elected by countywide vote every four years. Police departments in Dardanelle, Danville, and Ola provide law enforcement in their respective jurisdictions, with Bellville, Havana, and Plainview contracting with the Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services.
The current sheriff of Yell County is Nick Gault. Gault was elected to office in the 2022 General Election.[18]
The chief officer of the law in Yell County, as in all Arkansas counties, is the sheriff.
Construction of the old Danville Jail (Replaced in 2016)
Construction of the old Dardanelle Jail (Replaced in 2016)
Hartsell Lewis
1977
1978
1
Denver Dennis
1979
1988
9
Mike May
1989
1992
3
Loyd W. Maughn
1993
1998
5
Construction of Juvenile Detention Center (1997)
Bill Gilkey
1999
March 31, 2022
23 Years 3 Months
Construction of New Law Enforcement Center and Jail (2016)
Longest serving sheriff in Yell Count (2017)
Longest current serving sheriff in the state of Arkansas (2017)
In 2017, he became the longest currently-serving sheriff in Arkansas, after 19 years in the office. He is also the longest-serving sheriff in the county's history. Gilkey has sat on state boards such as the Arkansas Crime Lab Board and Arkansas Act 309 Board.
Gilkey is credited with the creation of the Yell County Law Enforcement Center in 2016, which replaces two of the county's older jails that did not meet state standards, and houses the sheriff's office. The new building also houses CID offices, revenue office, and an updated E911 dispatch center.
Heath Tate
April 1, 2022
December 2022
9 Months
Interim Sheriff after Gilkey's retirement in March 2022.
Yell County has several historical homes, structures, and monuments dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the area. The Dardanelle Commercial Historic District preserves the historic commercial hub of Yell County along the Arkansas River. The Mt. Nebo State Park Cabins Historic District preserves ten cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The county also has seven homes, three churches, and two bridges listed on the NRHP.
Upon settlement, Yell County's varied topography created a stratified society, splitting settlers between the more fertile and productive farms of the "lowlands" and the subsistence farming of the steep and less-productive mountain soil of the "uplands".[20] A planter class emerged in the lowlands, and as Dardanelle evolved into a cohesive community, the large landowners moved to town and managed their landholdings from stately homes, similar to the model seen in the Arkansas Delta and the Mississippi Delta.[20] This left the lowlands inhabited largely by poor sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who largely shared economic fortunes with the small farms in the uplands, shifting the "upland/lowland" split to a "town-country" divide based largely on economics.
As mechanization and society evolved and Arkansas became less of a frontier, a wealthy upper class emerged in Dardanelle that came to wield societal, political, and economic power in the county. This society remained relatively closed, with separate social events and often summering on Mount Nebo with other wealthy Arkansans visiting to enjoy the cool mountain breezes.[21] With little of the industrialization that defined the Gilded Age in the Northeast and Midwest, Yell County instead retained an adjusted Old South economic model based on agriculture but adapted to a post-Reconstruction reality.[22]
Government
Yell County Eastern District Courthouse in Dardanelle
The county government is a constitutional body granted specific powers by the Constitution of Arkansas and the Arkansas Code. The quorum court is the legislative branch of the county government and controls all spending and revenue collection. Representatives are called justices of the peace and are elected from county districts every even-numbered year. The number of districts in a county vary from nine to fifteen, and district boundaries are drawn by the county election commission. The Yell County Quorum Court has eleven members.[23] Presiding over quorum court meetings is the county judge, who serves as the chief operating officer of the county. The county judge is elected at-large and does not vote in quorum court business, although capable of vetoing quorum court decisions.[24][25] Though Yell County has two county seats, the constitutional officers are not duplicated, with duties split between the two courthouses.
Politics
Over the past few election cycles Yell county has trended heavily towards the GOP. The last Democratic presidential candidate (as of 2020) to carry this county was native Arkansan Bill Clinton in 1996.
United States presidential election results for Yell County, Arkansas[26]
Two Rivers School District—formed in 2004 by the consolidation of the former Fourche Valley School District, Ola School District, Perry–Casa School District, and Plainview–Rover School District.
Western Yell County School District—formed in 1985 by the consolidation of the former Belleville School District and Havana School District.
The Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System, is headquartered in Dardanelle and serves multiple counties and consists of one central library and six branch libraries, including the Yell County Library, a branch library in Danville.[28]
Townships in Arkansas are the divisions of a county. Each township includes unincorporated areas; some may have incorporated cities or towns within part of their boundaries. Arkansas townships have limited purposes in modern times. However, the United States census does list Arkansas population based on townships (sometimes referred to as "county subdivisions" or "minor civil divisions"). Townships are also of value for historical purposes in terms of genealogical research. Each town or city is within one or more townships in an Arkansas county based on census maps and publications. The townships of Yell County are listed below; listed in parentheses are the cities, towns, and/or census-designated places that are fully or partially inside the township.
[29][30]
^Carter, Clarence Edwin (1953). The Territorial Papers of The United States, Volume XIX, The Territory of Arkansas 1819-1825. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 525–527. Retrieved January 5, 2023. Chiefs of the Arkansas Cherokee to the Secretary of War... on this day we have had a talk in council, among other things the boundaries of our nation was discussed. The chiefs' letter was signed by marks by John Jolly, Young Glass, Black Fox, Thomas Graves, Walter M. Webber, George Morris, and Water Minnow at the end of the meeting on June 24, 1823.
^Carter, Clarence Edwin (1953). The Territorial Papers of The United States, Volume XIX, The Territory of Arkansas 1819-1825. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 546–550. Retrieved January 5, 2023. Acting Governor Crittenden to the Secretary of War... The Cherokee Indians have returned from Washington discontented and untractable... I announced to them that since their Lands had been allotted... they would be expected to remove to them; and confine themselves at least in agricultural pursuits to their own soil; they in reply said we had no right to the sovereignty of the soil on the South side of the Arkansas, and that they would NOT remove, that they were the tenants of the Choctaws, and not of the Government, and should consult them, not us, on the subject. Crittenden's latter is dated September 28, 1823.
^"Treaty of Council Oaks". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Central Arkansas Library System. Retrieved January 5, 2023. Although this meeting is referred to as the "Treaty of Council Oaks," it was actually not a treaty-making event. Crittenden, who did not in any event have the authority to initiate treaties with Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government without direction from Washington DC, supported the popular desire among non-Indians in the territory to see all Indian lands opened for white settlement and all tribes removed from the territory as soon as possible.
