Helena, Arkansas

Helena is the eastern portion of Helena–West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, United States, located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phillips, an early settler of Phillips County and the namesake of Phillips County. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 6,323. Helena was the county seat of Phillips County until January 1, 2006, when it merged its government and city limits with neighboring West Helena.

During the American Civil War, the Battle of Helena was fought July 4, 1863. Helena is the birthplace of many notable people including prominent African Americans and Arkansas' former senior United States senator, Blanche Lincoln. Helena is home to the longest running daily radio program in the U.S., King Biscuit Time.

Citizens of Helena incorporated the Arkansas Midland Railroad in 1853, intending it to be a fairly straight "air-line railroad" running west from Helena to Little Rock, Arkansas, about 115 miles. However actual trackage was not completed until 1872, and only ran to Clarendon, Arkansas, about 48 miles. This line later became part of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in 1910, but was all abandoned by 1979. From 1906 to 1946, Helena was a terminal point on the former Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, which provided passenger and freight service to Joplin, Missouri. After a loss of rail service in early 2015, a successful effort was launched by the Helena-West Helena/Phillips County Port Authority to have freight service restored. The service was restored on October 1, 2015, and two new freight customers were quickly gained.

Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, Governor of French Louisiana, built Fort St. Francis as a rendezvous point and supply depot for his 1738 campaign against the Chickasaws. The position proved vulnerable and was abandoned in favor of Fort Assumption, upriver on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, at present day Memphis, TN. During Spanish rule in the late 1700s, a number of settlers came to what was then known as Prairie Point, forming a small community name Big Prairie, it was devastated by the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811 and 1812.

Sylvanus Phillips and W.B.R. Hornor moved to St. Francis during the early years. Phillips had lived in the area as early as 1797, and moved to the area of St. Francis following a brief stint at Arkansas Post in 1799. The area comprising modern downtown Helena, next to the Mississippi River, was originally part of a land speculation deal between Sylvanus Phillips (the county's namesake) and St. Louis businessman William Russell in around 1815. The land was formally platted by New York surveyor Nicholas Rightor in 1820, and by 1833, the city of Helena was founded, and the name changed from St. Francis. Local legend holds that the town was named are the deceased daughter of Sylvanus.

In 1834, British geologist George William Featherstonhaugh was appointed by the War Department to make a geological survey of the state of Arkansas. Before the trip, while stopping in Bolivar, TN, Featherstonhaugh was warned against going to Helena, it being described by the locals as "a sink of crime and infamy."

The steamboat General Brown exploded at the wharf boat at Helena on November 25, 1838. The Phillips County Historical Quarterly states about the event: Suddenly the boat's three boilers let go with such force, more than half of her upper structure was torn to splinters. The captain, still grasping the rope, was blown overboard, together with a portion of the woodwork on which he stood. Dr. Price fell to the lower deck and died in flames which destroyed all that was left of the steamer. Captain Robert McConnell of Paducah, who was clerk on her, was blown into the river, but being uninjured, managed to get to the shore. Although many passengers and members of the crew were injured or killed by the explosion and fire, the few who leaped overboard were drowned."

On September 26, 1866, a portion of the eastern end of the city of Helena collapsed into the Mississippi River due to river erosion. The majority of this was the land at the intersection of Main Street (now Cherry Street) and Elm Street. Multiple building were lost in the event, which was later known as "The Cave-in of '66."