Benton County is located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 284,333, making it the second-most populous county in Arkansas. The county seat is Bentonville. The county was formed on September 30, 1836, and was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. Senator from Missouri. In 2012, Benton County voters elected to make the county wet, or a non-alcohol prohibition location. Benton County is part of the Northwest Arkansas region.
Bella Vista is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. First established in 1917 as a summer resort destination, Bella Vista has evolved and redesigned itself over the succeeding years. Bella Vista became a retirement community in 1965, and, after much contention and a 2006 vote of its property owners, became an incorporated city.
Bentonville is the tenth-largest city in Arkansas, United States and the county seat of Benton County. The city is centrally located in the county with Rogers adjacent to the east. The city is the birthplace of and world headquarters location of Walmart, the world's largest retailer. It is one of the four main cities in the three-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ranked 105th in terms of population in the United States with 546,725 residents in 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau. The city itself had a population of 54,164 at the 2020 Census, an increase of 53% from the 2010 Census.
Arkansas Highway 279 is a north–south state highway in Benton County, Arkansas. The route runs 14.87 miles (23.93 km) from Arkansas Highway 12 at Vaughn north to the Missouri state line through Centerton. The route has a rare officially designated exception of 0.52 miles (0.84 km), overlapping Arkansas Highway 72.
Highway 340 is an east–west state highway in Benton County, Arkansas. The route of 9.21 miles (14.82 km) runs entirely across Bella Vista, from Arkansas Highway 279 in the west to Arkansas Highway 94 in the east.
Old High Middle School is in the building which was once Bentonville High School, and is located at 406 NW 2nd Street, Bentonville, Arkansas. Construction costs when it was built in 1928 were $25,000. It was designed by John Parks Almand, in a combination of Spanish Colonial, Mission and Mediterranean styles.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Benton County, Arkansas.
The New Home School and Church is a historic community building on McKisic Creek Road south of Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a modest single-story wood-frame structure, with a gable roof, which lacks ornamentation. Its main facade has a double-door entrance, and the side facades have three bays of windows. Built c. 1900, it is a well-preserved example of a multifunction vernacular community building, which was used as a school during the week and as a church on Sundays. The school function was discontinued after schools in the area were consolidated.
U.S. Highway 71 is a U.S. highway that runs from Krotz Springs, LA to the Fort Frances–International Falls International Bridge at the Canadian border. In Arkansas, the highway runs from the Louisiana state line near Doddridge to the Missouri state line near Bella Vista. In Texarkana, the highway runs along State Line Avenue with US 59 and partially runs in Texas. Other areas served by the highway include Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas.
The Blackwell-Paisley Cabin is a historic summer cabin on Suits-Us Drive in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, facing west, with a front gable roof. A carport is attached to the south facade of the main cabin, and projects forward of it, with its own gable roof. The rear of the carport is screened to provide a sitting area. Bedrooms on two levels are sheltered only by screens on three sides. The cabin was built in 1924 by Roy Cunningham, who built many summer retreat cabins in Bella Vista. This cabin is one of the few surviving and relatively unaltered cabins in the area from the period.
The Bogan Cabin is a historic summer cabin on a private spur road off Cedar Crest Drive, near Bella Vista, Arkansas. Built c. 1925, it is one of a small number of surviving cabins in this hill resort area. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, with a gable roof that extends over a narrow open porch with a balustrade fashioned out of tree branches. A gabled wing extending to the east includes a covered carport and a porch, and a similar wing to the west shelters a deck. The cabin is surrounded on three sides by screened areas. The cabin represents a particularly creative use of outside spaces of the surviving cabins in the area.
The Braithwaite House is a historic house at Bella Vista Drive and Braithwaite Street in Bentonville, Arkansas. Built c. 1855, this single-story brick house may be the oldest house in Benton County, and is the only one of its type in the city. Its former is similar to a saltbox with a side gable roof that has a short front slope and an extended rear slope. An open porch with a shed roof extends across the front. The house was by James Haney, an Irish brick mason, for the Braithwaites, who were major local landowners.
The Deaton Cabin is a historic summer cabin on Suits Us Road in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a single-story structure, fashioned out of rustically cut wood framing. It is a long rectangle in shape, oriented north–south and parallel to Suits Us Road. Its gable roof extends over a former carport that has been screened and converted into a porch area. Its entrance is sheltered by a gabled portico, and there is a rough fieldstone chimney just to its left. It is little-altered since its c. 1924 construction, and is one of a handful of surviving summer cabins from that period in Bella Vista.
The Hagler-Cole Cabin is a historic summer cabin on Mt. Pisgah Loop in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a two-story wood-frame structure with a wide overhanging front gable roof, which presents a single story to the front because of a steeply sloping lot. The front has a fieldstone chimney near the center, with a corner entry to the right, and a projecting gable-roofed screen porch to the left. Built c. 1920, it is one of a few relatively unaltered cabins in the Bella Vista area.
The Lamberton Cabin is a historic summer cabin at 8 North Mountain in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a roughly square single-story wood-frame structure with a low-pitch gable roof. The roof is extended to the west by a shed-roofed sleeping porch, and there is an open deck to the east. The roof extends significantly beyond the walls, much of which consist of screened sections. The interior of the cabin, partitioned into living spaces, is further sheltered from the elements by the use of canvas shades. Built c. 1920, this is one a handful of period cabins to survive in Bella Vista, and one of its least-altered.
The Linebarger House is a historic house at 606 West Central Avenue in Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.A. This two-story Craftsman-style house was built in 1920 by C. A. Linebarger, one of the principal developers of the Bella Vista resort area north of Bentonville. As one of the first Craftsman houses built, it played a significant role in popularizing the style in the region, with a deep porch whose roof is supported by stone porch piers, wide eaves with decorative supporting brackets, and exposed rafter tails.
The Pharr Cabin is a historic summer cabin at 2 North Mountain in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a wood-frame structure with a gable roof, presenting a single story to the front, and two to the rear on its steeply sloping lot. A porch extends across the front (south-facing) facade, with a lower-pitch gable roof. A large fieldstone chimney rises through both of these roofs. An open deck runs along the eastern facade. The sleeping areas on the lower level are enclosed only by screening. The cabin was built c. 1920, and is one of a small number of little-altered cabins built in that period in Bella Vista.
The Princedom Cabin is a historic cabin on the south side of Lookout Drive in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It is a wood-frame structure with one story facing the road, and two at the back of its steeply sloping lot. It is finished in board-and-batten siding, and has a low pitch roof, with a fieldstone chimney prominently placed at the front facade. Built c. 1923, this typical cabin of the period has been modified by enclosing its car port as a sleeping porch and building an open deck between it and the main cabin. It is one of a small number of surviving little-altered 1920s cabins built in the area.
The Sutherlin Cabin is a historic summer cabin at 4 North Mountain in Bella Vista, Arkansas. Built c. 1924, it is the simplest of the handful of summer cabins in Bella Vista to survive from that period. It presents a single story at the front, but sits on a steeply sloping lot that provides a full second story at the rear. Unlike its contemporaries, it lacks projecting deck and porch sections, having only a narrow porch across its front, underneath the main hip roof. The cabin has bands of sash windows on all sides, interrupted only on the east side by the fieldstone chimney. The two levels of the cabin are not connected by an interior staircase.
Wonderland Cave is the largest cave in northwestern Arkansas. It is located on Dartmoor Road in Bella Vista, northeast of Bella Vista Lake and east of United States Route 71. The cave was first developed in the 1920s, and transformed into a nightclub in the 1930s, finishing a cavernous space within it with a concrete floor, stage for musicians, and decorations reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Portions of the facility have also been used historically for the aging of locally produced wine, and at least one session of the Arkansas General Assembly has been held in the cave. A local organization is developing plans to reopen the site as a tourist attraction.
