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Hand

Ghost town · Baxter County, Arkansas

Norfork Dam North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1965, 1:24,000)
Norfork Dam North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1965, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Hand is a ghost town in Baxter County, Arkansas. It is one of 14 former communities in Baxter County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 15th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Hand as a historical populated place on the Norfork Dam North 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 36.2767° N, 92.1949° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleNorfork Dam North
Elevation552 ft
Nearest living townBriarcliff, AR
Distance to it4.9 miles
GNIS feature ID69380
Coordinates36.27673, -92.19488

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.

Hand today, aerial view
Norfork Dam North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1965, 1:24,000)

Left: Norfork Dam North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1965, 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

Hand is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Briarcliff, AR (population 231), about 4.9 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 552 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 Hand?

Hand is in Baxter County, Arkansas, at 36.2767, -92.1949.

How many ghost towns are in Baxter County?

Baxter County, Arkansas has 14 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.