Marmaduke, AR

Marmaduke's name carries two overlapping stories. The town may honor Confederate Major General John Sappington Marmaduke, who later became governor of Missouri; local tradition also says he camped near the present site after crossing the St. Francis River at Chalk Bluff during the 1863 raid. The town grew in northeastern Greene County after the Texas and St. Louis Railroad reached the area in 1882. The railroad and river placed Marmaduke in the agricultural corridor between Missouri and Arkansas.

ATTRBrian Stansberry (photographer) / CC BY 4.0

U.S. 49 runs through the center, leading 16 miles northeast to Piggott and 10 miles southwest to Paragould, the county seat. Marmaduke School District operates the local elementary and secondary schools, keeping school life within the town's road-and-farm network. The St. Francis River remains an eastern landmark and a reminder of the lowland geography around Greene County. Marmaduke is a small Arkansas city whose present-day map is built from a highway, a school district, farm roads, and a name with Civil War-era baggage.