Bellefonte, AR

Bellefonte is a town in Boone County, Arkansas, in the Harrison micropolitan area. The name was tied to the area's springs, and the settlement grew from a few families into a business center with stores, a cotton gin, flour mill, leather factory, post office, and town square. An academy known as North Arkansas College opened by the early 1870s, serving students from across the state; the building burned in the 1882 fire that also destroyed much of the town. Bellefonte's early civic history includes the county-seat contest that Harrison ultimately won, leaving Bellefonte with a strong local past but not the county courthouse.

Rail arrived in 1901, when the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad built a line through town. A depot and hotel followed, and the line briefly renewed business at the cotton gin and flour mill. Later fires, the closing of the railroad, and the consolidation of the school district into Valley Springs changed the town's shape, but Bellefonte remained on the regional map where U.S. Highways 62 and 65 divide south of town. The railroad depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Bellefonte is a small Arkansas town whose springs, school history, rail line, and highway connections all remain part of its name.