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Lonoke County, Arkansas

county in Arkansas, United States

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ61143 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lonoke County is a county located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 74,015, making it the 10th-most populous of Arkansas's 75 counties. The county seat is Lonoke and largest city is Cabot. Included in the Central Arkansas metropolitan area, with Little Rock as the principal city, it is an alcohol prohibition or dry county.

Etymology

Lonoke County was named for the "lone oak" located in the county at the time of its formation, by simply spelling it phonetically, at the suggestion of the chief engineer of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad.

History

Formed on April 16, 1873, from Pulaski and Prairie counties, Lonoke County's varied geography can be roughly broken into thirds horizontally. The top third has rolling hills at the edge of the Ozarks, including the Cabot area. The middle third, including the Lonoke area, contains portions of the Grand Prairie, a flat native grassland today known for rice farming, an important part of the culture, economy and history of Lonoke County. The southern third, including the Scott area, is home to the alluvial soils of the Arkansas Delta. Historically, a military road and a railroad brought settlers to the area, and cotton cultivation was very profitable.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Lonoke County, Arkansas” as county in Arkansas, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lonoke, County and Arkansas.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 1873—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1873-04-16. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lonoke, County and Arkansas providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lonoke County, Arkansas”, the useful work is to connect “county in Arkansas, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q61143. VIAF identifies the subject as 151415175. The Library of Congress control number is n92071790. Authority coordinates are 34.778, -91.872. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020 and 1873.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lonoke County, Arkansas”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lonoke County, Arkansas primary sources, Lonoke County, Arkansas archive and Lonoke research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lonoke County, Arkansas”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lonoke County, Arkansas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.