Settlement
Ghost town · Van Buren County, Arkansas

Settlement is a ghost town in Van Buren County, Arkansas. It is one of 22 former communities in Van Buren County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 4th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.
The U.S. Geological Survey lists Settlement as a historical populated place on the Shirley 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 35.6445° N, 92.3149° W.
Key facts
| USGS quadrangle | Shirley |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 529 ft |
| Nearest living town | Shirley, AR |
| Distance to it | 0.1 miles |
| GNIS feature ID | 68697 |
| Coordinates | 35.64452, -92.31488 |
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.

Left: Shirley quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1973, 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
Settlement is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Shirley, AR (population 307), about 0.1 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 529 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
- Poeghost town · Van Buren County · 2.9 mi
- Bannerghost town · Van Buren County · 4.8 mi
- Kinderhookghost town · Van Buren County · 4.8 mi
- Pekinghost town · Stone County · 7 mi
- Chalkghost town · Van Buren County · 8.1 mi
- Bloomingtonghost town · Van Buren County · 8.4 mi
- Shake Ragghost town · Van Buren County · 11 mi
- East Mountainghost town · Van Buren County · 11.2 mi
- Archeyghost town · Van Buren County · 11.9 mi
- Buzzard Roostghost town · Van Buren County · 12 mi
- Shilohghost town · Cleburne County · 12.4 mi
- Everettghost town · Cleburne County · 13.3 mi
Questions
Where is Settlement?
Settlement is in Van Buren County, Arkansas, at 35.6445, -92.3149.
How many ghost towns are in Van Buren County?
Van Buren County, Arkansas has 22 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.
- USGS Geographic Names Information System (Domestic Names) — GNIS Domestic Names, feature record (public-domain)
- U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line and ACS — Census Gazetteer + ACS 5-year population (public-domain)
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.