AACFAMILY & FRIENDS Past
However, in most of the other counties with a second county seat, it has been the state legislature’s lawmaking process rather than a county’s voters that has “created” the second county seat. Between 1875 and 1913, laws were passed by the General Assembly mandating the splitting of the “judicial districts” of a county across a number of counties. Te legislation used the term “judicial district,” meaning that judicial proceedings could be carried out in courthouses in two locations in the county, but the pieces of legislation that allowed two centers of court activity in a county also explicitly stated that one town should remain the “county seat.” However, in the eyes of the public, these counties—with two buildings where court was held and other county business such as the issuance of marriage licenses were carried out—now had two “county seats.” In recent years, two court cases have challenged this notion. Circuit Judge Ken Crow, who had written a master’s thesis on the topic of dual county seats, declared in two separate rulings in 2010 that the General Assembly’s 1883 law that had created separate Eastern and Western judicial districts — in Berryville and Eureka Springs, respectively — was in violation of Article 13 of the Constitution in that it had de facto created two separate counties on each side of the Kings River. As a result, judicial proceedings could not properly take place at the Eureka Springs court house. Later that year, however, the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned Crow’s rulings and made clear that two operating courthouses could exist in Carroll County as long as the county government wanted. Te ruling did restate that Berryville was, indeed, the true “county seat” of the Ozarks county as it had been since 1875. In 2015, county government officials in Mississippi County grappled with the closing of one or both of the courthouses — in the official county seat of Osceola and the long-time second judicial district in Blytheville — because of the cost of maintaining old buildings. “It’s no longer feasible to have two courthouses,”
Mississippi County Judge Randy Carney said early in the controversy. “Te business part is a no-brainer.” Te city of Osceola retained former state Attorney
General Dustin McDaniel as its attorney and the county leaders ultimately decided to avoid the conflict. No matter their legitimacy, why does Arkansas have so many dual-seat counties? In several cases, it was simple geography as barriers such as rivers cut counties in half, making it difficult for many residents to reach their courthouse. Like the Kings River that divided the booming Eureka Springs from the remainder of Carroll County, frequent flooding along the White River divided Prairie County. Prairie County was created in 1846, with its seat in Brownsville. After the
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Top: Carroll County Courthouse (Eureka Springs, 1883) Bottom: Carroll County Courthouse (Berryville, 1875)
Civil War, the county seat was moved to DeValls Bluff in 1868, as it had been a major supply depot for the Union army in the region. In 1875 the county seat was moved again, this time to Des Arc, Prairie County’s traditional main city. Tis proved to be less than ideal, however, because frequent flooding along the White River divided the county and made reaching Des Arc difficult for those living south of the White River. Te solution was
COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2016
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