Get to Know Rison, Arkansas

Cleveland County Courthouse

Rison serves as the county seat of Cleveland County and has many ties to its neighboring city, Fordyce.  According to historians, the town was named for John W. Rison, a Huntsville, Alabama, native who was a cavalry officer in the Confederate army.  Rison and Col. Samuel W. Fordyce, for who Fordyce is named, became friends and forged banking relationship after the war.  It was Colonel Fordyce who selected the name “Rison” for the settlement that grew up alongside the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad for which he served as a surveyor.

Rison Pioneer Village

The striking Cleveland County Courthouse, which was built in 1911, was designed by the same architect, Frank W. Gibb, who designed the Dallas County Courthouse.  The two have many similar design attributes.

Portions of area history have been preserved and are on display at the Rison Pioneer Village. Located at Mockingbird Lane and Yaney Drive, the 1800s village features a doctor’s home, a country mercantile, two log cabins and a blacksmith shop. Additional structures include a barn, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and a post office.  Each spring the settlement is home to an annual Pioneer Crafts Fair.

Johnny Cash

Famous Arkansans who have called Rison home include the legendary football coach Jimmy “Red” Parker and Johnny Cash.  Though Cash is more closely identified with Dyess, Arkansas where he grew up, he was born in nearby Kingsland in Cleveland County.