Stephens, AR

Stephens sits in southwest Ouachita County on a map shaped first by rail and later by oil. The Cotton Belt Railroad bypassed Magnolia while building its route to Texarkana, creating the community in 1881; Stephens incorporated in 1889. Four oil fields in the region were still producing in the twenty-first century. That gives Stephens a clear local timeline: railroad town, oil town, and city government sharing the same streets.

ATTRBilly Hathorn / CC BY-SA 3.0

City Hall is on Ruby Street near the Ruby Street and First Street intersection, while Camden and Magnolia sit on the two nearby regional lines. Students now connect to Camden Fairview School District, whose current schools include Fairview Elementary, Ivory Intermediate, Camden Fairview Middle, and Camden Fairview High. Stephens also has a private school in town, and the former Stephens school district was dissolved in 2014. The local scoop is a small oil-country city whose rail beginning still gives the city its place on the regional map and whose school map now reaches toward Camden.