Marianna, AR

Marianna is Lee County’s seat on the L’Anguille River, a Delta town just north of St. Francis National Forest. Colonel Walter Otey founded the settlement as Walnut Ridge in 1848; it became Marianna in 1852 and moved three miles downstream to higher ground where the river was navigable year-round. Steamboats carried cotton toward Mississippi River ports, and agriculture—especially cotton—continued to shape the town. Crowley’s Ridge Parkway and the Great River Road now pass through the broader map. Marianna is an Arkansas county seat where river traffic, cotton, and Delta roads come together.