Page 6 - Pine Bluff and Jefferson County, Arkansas {1893}
P. 6
JEFFERSON COUNTY, ARK.
of many varieties, and over 12,000 square miles of coal corn, to which their unskilled labor is adapted. These
fields, besides an abundance of iron, magnanese, zinc, bottom lands are just what similar lands in Illinois were
copper, marble, granite, limestone, marl, lithographic fifty years ago; undrained swamps are close by and no
diversity of crop to call for better labor and better
and soapstone. modes of living. The creek bottoms and uplands are
best for new white settlers until the lowlands are more
JEFFERSON COUNTY. open and better drained.
This county, which is now to engage our special Besides the Arkansas River, Bayou Bartholomew
attention, possesses many attractive qualities. Its loca- winds its way through the county. There are several
tion is in Southeastern Arkansas, where are situated mineral springs, though the waters have not been anal-
the richest cotton and corn lands. A view of the map yzed: White Sulphur, Cantrels, Lees and Germans.
will show how it is divided midway by the Arkansas
River, whose numerous landings for steamboats afiord
SECOND AVENUE, LOOKING EAST FROM CHESTNUT.
facilities for travel and transportation. Noble's Lake, Lake Dick and Horse Shoe Lake are the
The latitude of Pine Blufi, the capital and center of
only lakes of considerable size.
the county, is 34 degrees north, and longitude 15
degrees west from Washington. The county is 29 miles LANDS.
square, containing 841 square miles or 538,240 acres.
Its population, white and colored, in 1870, was 15,714; All the land on the north side of the Arkansas River
in 1880, 24,000; in 1890, 40,821. The colored people
form three-fourths of the population. Their pre- is bottom land; almost all on the south side is upland.
ponderance up to the present time is owing to the
richness of the bottom lands, to which they are accli- The following is a classified statement of county lands:
mated, and the almost exclusive growth of cotton and
Bottom land acres, 363,000
Uplands " 175,000
Land in cultivation " go.ooo
Unimproved land susceptible of cultivation " 370,000
Vacant United States land " 15,000
