Lockesburg, AR

Lockesburg is a Sevier County city of 594 residents in the 2020 census, positioned at the crossroads of State Highways 24 and 71. It was incorporated in 1878 and served as county seat for about 36 years, until De Queen took that role in 1905. A railroad bypass in the late nineteenth century also shifted traffic and trade away from the town. Farms and sawmills kept it working through the twentieth century, and the city remains surrounded by productive farmland.

Several local landmarks keep that county-seat history visible. The 1936 water tower and early-1950s Lockesburg High School Gymnasium are listed on the National Register; the gym is now owned by Cossatot Community College. Lockesburg also has an unusual fossil story: bones found on Joe B. Friday's land in 1972 were given the informal name Arkansaurus fridayi, and remain the only dinosaur bones uncovered in Arkansas. Today, more than thirty businesses, including two banks, share the city with the nearby Cossatot River State Park and Pond Creek National Wildlife Refuge.