Helena, Arkansas

Helena was named for a teenager. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says the town was incorporated in 1833 and named for Helena Phillips, the daughter of Sylvanus Phillips, who died on August 28, 1831, at the age of fifteen. The site, 640 acres on a former Spanish land grant, had been platted in December 1820. It rests on the southern edge of Crowley's Ridge, but the lowland by the river flooded until levees rose late in the nineteenth century. The marker itself has since been moved across the street, to the grounds of the state Welcome Center.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Freedom Park — 0.9 mi
  An outdoor Delta Cultural Center site on the ground of a Civil War contraband camp, where thousands of people who had escaped slavery sheltered and men enlisted.
• Delta Cultural Center — 1.7 mi
  A state museum in downtown Helena where King Biscuit Time, the longest-running daily blues radio show, is broadcast live from the Visitors Center.
• Elaine Massacre Memorial — 2.0 mi
  A memorial dedicated in 2019 in Helena for the Black people killed by white mobs and troops in the 1919 Elaine Massacre, the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history.
• Mississippi River State Park — 12 mi
  A state park and gateway to the St. Francis National Forest, where the river, Crowley's Ridge and the Delta meet, with a Trail of Tears site at the Mississippi and St. Francis confluence.

More markers nearby

• General J.F. Fagan's Attack — 1.2 mi
• Battery D — 1.2 mi
• Sacred Heart Academy — 1.5 mi
• U.S.C.T. in Helena — 1.7 mi