Confusion in Arkansas

Arkansas has 15 populated places and one ghost town named Midway. One Midway is a town; the other 14 are unincorporated communities.

The town named Midway is in Hot Spring County. The town was incorporated on May 3, 2000, and has a population of around 200.

NOTE: Hot Spring County is not where the city of Hot Springs is located. Hot Springs is in Garland County. Before there was a Garland County, Hot Springs was in Clark County, as was the area now known as Hot Spring County.

Other places of confusion in Arkansas include the town of Searcy, which is in White County and not in Searcy County. The City of Searcy is about 70 miles southeast of Searcy County. Searcy City population was around 24,000 three years ago, while Searcy County had a 2010 census population of 8,195.

And others: Benton, Arkansas, is in Saline County, not in Benton County. The town’s population was 33,625 in 2014. Benton County’s 2010 population was 221,339. For some Arkansas-logic reason, the county seat of Benton County is Bentonville.

As adjudged by the federal government, Benton County is part of the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers-AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area. You can go to Northwest Arkansas and tell the people there that the federal government considers them and Missouri-across-the-mountains people all the same. Just be ready to argue, to duck, or just go ahead and run.

(Statistics and such from various Wikipedia entries.)