Jasper is county seat of Newton County. Jasper’s 2010 population was 466. The county population was 8,330. A county with that small a population, people won’t let government go overboard.
Within 20 or 30 miles or so of Jasper are Aurora, Deer, Bass, Boston, Parthenon, Dogpatch, Venus, and Mount Judea.
Terrain in that part of Arkansas is kind of squiggly, with creeks curlicuing along valleys and lots of pushed together hills and small mountains.
Southeast of Jasper is “Arkansas Grand Canyon,” a national park in Newton County. People who put designations on things might consider that the park looks nothing like the Arizona Grand Canyon, and while the Arkansas park might be “deepest in the Ozarks,” it still is covered with trees and has nothing like the Colorado River running through it.
Don’t get me wrong. There is lots of pretty countryside to see and hike through, creeks to cross and caves to explore. But the other Grand Canyon it is not.
Despite the scenic beauty of the area, Jasper has a high poverty rate, 25.9% of families and 31.6% of total population under the official poverty line.
Jasper’s highest population was 519 in 1980. Ten years later, the population had dropped 36%, to 332. At the 2000 census, population was up by 50%, at 498.
Newton County is the official “Elk Capital of Arkansas.”
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=365
Showing posts with label Ozark Mountains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ozark Mountains. Show all posts
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Friday, March 10, 2017
Small county seat
The official 2010 census for Jasper, Arkansas, counted 466 people within the city limits. Jasper is county seat for Newton County, in the northwest part of the state, two counties down from Missouri and three counties east of Oklahoma.
Newton County’s 2010 population was 8,330. At least two other towns in the county have more people than does Jasper, but bigger does not always signify more important.
The 2000 census noted Jasper’s racial breakdown as 99.98% white, 0.01% Native American, 0.01% from “other races,” and 0.00% from two or more races. The “Hispanic or Latino of any race” official federal category showed 0.00%. Newton County is 99.29% white.
Overwhelmingly white populations are normal in mountainous areas of the South. Farms were small and in valleys and required no more labor than a farm family could provide, with maybe a farm hand or two. Food crops prevailed over cotton. Unlike in the lower, flatter areas of the state, slave labor was not a necessity.
What that meant during the American Civil War was a split in political loyalty or disloyalty in the area. Wikipedia says men from the Newton area served in both the Confederate and Union army regiments.
Depending on how you look at things
“Newton County as a whole mostly supported the Union; however, in 1863, while searching for (Confederate guerilla leader John) Cecil, Union troops burned Jasper to the ground and moved their sympathizers to Springfield, Missouri.”
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=365
Or: “Violence took a severe toll on the civilian population, and at one point, Captains McCoy and Vanderpool escorted 20 wagons of Unionist families from Newton County to Missouri to seek refuge.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_County,_Arkansas
Newton County is in that part of Arkansas that has scenery. The county lies in the Boston Mountain range of the Ozarks. The Buffalo River runs west-east through the county.
http://www.arkansas.com/places-to-go/cities-and-towns/city-detail.aspx?city=jasper says, “More than one third of the county is owned by some government entity (National Park Service, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, State of Arkansas and county government).”
Probably, the New Deal Resettlement Administration moved people from some of those areas now designated state parks or wildlife areas. Poor farmers got to go, deer got to roam.
Newton County’s 2010 population was 8,330. At least two other towns in the county have more people than does Jasper, but bigger does not always signify more important.
The 2000 census noted Jasper’s racial breakdown as 99.98% white, 0.01% Native American, 0.01% from “other races,” and 0.00% from two or more races. The “Hispanic or Latino of any race” official federal category showed 0.00%. Newton County is 99.29% white.
Overwhelmingly white populations are normal in mountainous areas of the South. Farms were small and in valleys and required no more labor than a farm family could provide, with maybe a farm hand or two. Food crops prevailed over cotton. Unlike in the lower, flatter areas of the state, slave labor was not a necessity.
What that meant during the American Civil War was a split in political loyalty or disloyalty in the area. Wikipedia says men from the Newton area served in both the Confederate and Union army regiments.
Depending on how you look at things
“Newton County as a whole mostly supported the Union; however, in 1863, while searching for (Confederate guerilla leader John) Cecil, Union troops burned Jasper to the ground and moved their sympathizers to Springfield, Missouri.”
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=365
Or: “Violence took a severe toll on the civilian population, and at one point, Captains McCoy and Vanderpool escorted 20 wagons of Unionist families from Newton County to Missouri to seek refuge.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_County,_Arkansas
Newton County is in that part of Arkansas that has scenery. The county lies in the Boston Mountain range of the Ozarks. The Buffalo River runs west-east through the county.
http://www.arkansas.com/places-to-go/cities-and-towns/city-detail.aspx?city=jasper says, “More than one third of the county is owned by some government entity (National Park Service, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, State of Arkansas and county government).”
Probably, the New Deal Resettlement Administration moved people from some of those areas now designated state parks or wildlife areas. Poor farmers got to go, deer got to roam.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
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.)
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.)
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