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Bessie

Ghost town · Faulkner County, Arkansas

Gleason quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1961, 1:24,000)
Gleason quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1961, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Bessie is a ghost town in Faulkner County, Arkansas. It is one of 14 former communities in Faulkner County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 14th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Bessie as a historical populated place on the Gleason topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 35.0143° N, 92.5707° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleGleason
Elevation275 ft
Nearest living townFourche, AR
Distance to it3.1 miles
GNIS feature ID76105
Coordinates35.01425, -92.57072

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Bessie today, aerial view
Gleason quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1961, 1:24,000)

Left: Gleason quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1961, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Bessie is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Fourche, AR (population 16), about 3.1 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 275 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Bessie?

Bessie is in Faulkner County, Arkansas, at 35.0143, -92.5707.

How many ghost towns are in Faulkner County?

Faulkner County, Arkansas has 14 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.