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Ripley

Ghost town · Cleveland County, Arkansas

Herbine quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1970, 1:24,000)
Herbine quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1970, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Ripley is a ghost town in Cleveland County, Arkansas. It is one of 21 former communities in Cleveland County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 5th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Ripley as a historical populated place on the Herbine 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 33.8376° N, 92.0918° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleHerbine
Elevation143 ft
Nearest living townRye, AR
Distance to it8.1 miles
GNIS feature ID61115
Coordinates33.83760, -92.09181

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.

Ripley today, aerial view
Herbine quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1970, 1:24,000)

Left: Herbine quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1970, 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

Ripley is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Rye, AR (population 197), about 8.1 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 143 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 Ripley?

Ripley is in Cleveland County, Arkansas, at 33.8376, -92.0918.

How many ghost towns are in Cleveland County?

Cleveland County, Arkansas has 21 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.