Wayfarrow

Pekin

Ghost town · Craighead County, Arkansas

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

Pekin is a ghost town in Craighead County, Arkansas. It is one of 14 former communities in Craighead County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 17th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Pekin as a historical populated place on the Needham 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 35.8192° N, 90.5084° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleNeedham
Elevation238 ft
Nearest living townBowman, AR
Distance to it0.7 miles
GNIS feature ID64576
Coordinates35.81924, -90.50844

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.

Pekin today, aerial view
Jonesboro quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1939, 1:62,500)

Left: Jonesboro 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

Pekin is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Bowman, AR (population 46), about 0.7 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 238 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 Pekin?

Pekin is in Craighead County, Arkansas, at 35.8192, -90.5084.

How many ghost towns are in Craighead County?

Craighead 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.