Bald Knob, Arkansas: The Rock Behind the Railroad Town
The bald knob in Bald Knob, Arkansas, was a real thing: a bare cliff of sandstone beside the tracks that the town later quarried for railroad ballast. Before the name came the rock, and before long the railroad was hauling the rock away.
A landmark of layered stone
Union Pacific, which runs the railroad through town today, says Bald Knob “was named for a large outcropping of layered stone that was a natural landmark.” The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad came through in 1872, and around 1873, by the same account, Benjamin Franklin Brown, one of the town’s founders, “posted a sign beside the railroad tracks labeling the area Bald Knob.”
You don’t have to take a railroad’s word for the rock. R. Ellsworth Call, writing for the Geological Survey of Arkansas in a report published in 1891, described it while the quarry was working:
“Here is a bold cliff of Carboniferous sandstone abutting against and lying upon which are to be seen the uppermost members of the Tertiary of this region.”
The quarry, the report adds, was “a few hundred feet east of the railway station,” and it exposed about 35 feet (11 m) of sandstone. So if you’d stepped off a train back then, the knob sat right next to the depot.
Quarrying the knob
The railroad wanted that rock. Union Pacific says officials got interested in quarrying “the ‘bald knob’ rock for railroad bed ballast,” the crushed stone that holds track in place. Work began in 1877, and by 1880, 56 of the town’s 221 people worked in the quarry, more than half of them born abroad, most in Ireland. From 1886 to 1888 the knob furnished ballast for Jay Gould’s Bald Knob-Memphis railroad, built to link the Iron Mountain line east to Memphis. Gould’s name is on another Arkansas railroad town, Paragould.
Dallas T. Herndon’s 1922 Centennial History of Arkansas says Bald Knob was incorporated on August 20, 1881. By his day it sat at “the junction of the main line and the Memphis division of the Missouri Pacific,” and it counted 958 people in 1920. In 1935 the Geological Survey drew the town’s grid right where the lines split.
The Strawberry Capital
The town had a second boom that had nothing to do with rock. The sandy upland soil was good for strawberries, Union Pacific writes, and in 1921 local men organized The Strawberry Company and built a strawberry shed three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) long beside the tracks. In the peak year of 1951, growers sold $3.5 million worth of berries, and Bald Knob called itself the “Strawberry Capital of the World.” The railroad still matters here. Union Pacific says the depot sits at the exact split of its Memphis and Chicago lines out of Little Rock, and train fans come to watch more than 60 trains a day.
Quick answers
Why is it called Bald Knob, Arkansas?
For a large outcrop of layered sandstone that stood out as a landmark beside the railroad. Around 1873 Benjamin Franklin Brown posted a sign by the tracks calling the area Bald Knob, according to Union Pacific.
Is the bald knob still there?
The sources we read don’t say how much of it is left. The rock was quarried for railroad ballast starting in 1877, and a state geological report published in 1891 described the quarry a few hundred feet east of the station.
When was Bald Knob incorporated?
On August 20, 1881, according to Herndon’s Centennial History of Arkansas (1922).
Key dates
- 1872The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad arrives.
- 1873Around this year Benjamin Franklin Brown posts a sign by the tracks labeling the area Bald Knob.
- 1877Work begins in the quarry cut into the knob.
- 1881August 20: Bald Knob is incorporated.
- 1886-1888The knob supplies ballast for Jay Gould's Bald Knob-Memphis railroad.
- 1951Peak year of the strawberry trade, when Bald Knob is called the "Strawberry Capital of the World."
Getting there
Open Bald Knob in Google Maps
Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Bald Knob in the USGS place-name record.
The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Bald Knob.
Airports
- Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field (LIT) Little Rock 55 mi 88 km
- Frederick W Smith International/Memphis (MEM) 92 mi 148 km
Amtrak trains
- Little Rock station (LRK) 56 mi 90 km
- Walnut Ridge station (WNR) 63 mi 101 km
Intercity buses
- Greyhound Bald Knob Marty Mart under 1 mi 1 km
- Jefferson Lines Conway 51 mi 82 km
Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.
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Historical Sources & References
- Union Pacific, “Bald Knob, AR.” The outcrop of layered stone, the railroad of 1872, Benjamin Franklin Brown’s sign around 1873, the quarry from 1877, the ballast for Gould’s Bald Knob-Memphis railroad and the strawberry years.
- R. Ellsworth Call, The Geology of Crowley’s Ridge, Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Arkansas for 1889, vol. 2 (1891), p. 19. The “Section at Bald Knob”: the bold cliff of Carboniferous sandstone and the quarry a few hundred feet east of the station.
- Dallas T. Herndon, ed., Centennial History of Arkansas, vol. 1 (1922), p. 815. Incorporation on August 20, 1881, the Missouri Pacific junction and the 1920 population.
- GNIS feature 76228 (U.S. Geological Survey). Bald Knob’s official name, county and coordinates in the federal gazetteer.
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