Cedarville, AR

Cedarville sits in the Webber Valley of Lee's Creek at the foothills of the Boston Mountains, where Arkansas Highways 59, 162, and 220 meet. It is about ten miles north of Van Buren and five and a half miles east of Oklahoma, so the town's daily map is built around the roads that connect Crawford County's western edge. A post office has operated here since 1872, and the city was platted in 1879. Those dates fit a place that grew as a crossroads community before its newer school and civic institutions took over.

ATTRUSEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency / Public domain

The Old Rock School is the most useful place to start with present-day Cedarville. Built as the town's high school in 1931, it was renovated by local families in the 1990s and later housed the Cedarville Community Center, History Museum, and gift shop. The Crawford County Library's Cedarville branch moved to a new building in 2011, leaving the old school as a visible link between the former consolidated school system and current civic gatherings. Cedarville School District still serves local students, while Highway 59 carries the town toward Van Buren and Lincoln.