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Belser

Ghost town · Phillips County, Arkansas

Latour quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1939, 1:62,500)
Latour quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1939, 1:62,500) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Belser is a ghost town in Phillips County, Arkansas. It is one of 6 former communities in Phillips County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 55th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Belser as a historical populated place on the West Helena 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 34.5470° N, 90.6940° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleWest Helena
Elevation194 ft
Nearest living townHelena-West Helena, AR
Distance to it4.3 miles
GNIS feature ID65536
Coordinates34.54705, -90.69400

Open the location on a map

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.

Belser today, aerial view
Latour quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1939, 1:62,500)

Left: Latour quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1939, 1:62,500), 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

Belser is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Helena-West Helena, AR (population 9,218), about 4.3 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 194 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

Questions

Where is Belser?

Belser is in Phillips County, Arkansas, at 34.5470, -90.6940.

How many ghost towns are in Phillips County?

Phillips County, Arkansas has 6 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

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.