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Bests

Ghost town · Ouachita County, Arkansas

Bearden quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1973, 1:24,000)
Bearden quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1973, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Bests is a ghost town in Ouachita County, Arkansas. It is one of 8 former communities in Ouachita County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 42nd among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Bests as a historical populated place on the Bearden 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 33.7312° N, 92.6029° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleBearden
Elevation251 ft
Nearest living townBearden, AR
Distance to it0.9 miles
GNIS feature ID64363
Coordinates33.73122, -92.60294

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.

Bests today, aerial view
Bearden quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1973, 1:24,000)

Left: Bearden quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1973, 1:24,000), 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

Bests is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Bearden, AR (population 793), about 0.9 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 251 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 Bests?

Bests is in Ouachita County, Arkansas, at 33.7312, -92.6029.

How many ghost towns are in Ouachita County?

Ouachita County, Arkansas has 8 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.