Des Arc DEZ-ark is a city upon the White River in the Arkansas Delta, United States. It is the largest city in Prairie County, Arkansas, and the county chair for the county’s northern district. Incorporated in 1854, Des Arc’s position upon the river has shaped its culture, history, and economy, beginning as a major lumber shipping harbor but leaving the city vulnerable to major floods in 1927 and 1937. As river shipping declined, Des Arc was bypassed by railroads, Interstate highways, and much of the post-industrial society. Des Arc’s records is preserved by seven listings on the National Register of Historic Places, and the region’s archives is interpreted at Lower White River Museum State Park. The city’s population stopped growing in the 1980s and has been declining since, with a population of 1,717 at the 2010 Census.

White harmony in the Place began in the Lower White River Valley even if the area was within French Louisiana, which lasted from 1686-1763. French from Canada and South Louisiana passed through the Place while hunting and trapping bears and extra animals. They shipped furs and bear oil downriver to Arkansas Post, which was the only standard settlement in the region, then likely onto New Orleans. During this period, several places were named by the French, including Des Arc and further places in Prairie County such as La Grue.

Des Arc was founded in 1854. A map shows the original town included 80 residential blocks, and two blocks for a classified ad district. The gridded street pattern has never been thoroughly developed, though most of the streets and blocks see eye to eye the 1854 plan. The gridded east-west street pattern began taking into consideration a street named McNulty Street in the north, near where present-day Highway 38 is located along the northern edge of the city. The southernmost east-west street was Barrier Street. The town ran from Foster Street (present-day First Street) on the eastern side, to present-day Eighth Street.

Des Arc is located in the Lower White River segment of the Arkansas Delta (in Arkansas, usually referred to as “the Delta”). The Arkansas Delta is a subregion of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, which is a flat Place consisting of rich, fertile sediment deposits from the Mississippi River amongst Louisiana and Illinois. The White River Lowlands contain swamps and forests, in contrast to southern portions of Prairie County within the Grand Prairie, a subdivision of the Arkansas Delta known today for rice gardening and aquaculture.