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Arkansas’s small towns are at the heart of what makes Arkansas so special. Mayflower is a small community with lots of heart and is a great place to visit or live in Arkansas.
Mayflower is a central Arkansas community only 20 miles from Little Rock, but with about 2,000 residents, it maintains its small-town appeal. In the history of Arkansas, Mayflower can claim to be one of the earliest settled towns. Its first residents arrived in 1778. The first settlers had supported the British during the Revolutionary War, and now that the war was over, they wanted to start over in a new place. Arkansas was primarily unsettled, mainly inhabited by the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw tribes. Arkansas Post had been established in 1686. In 1789, the community of Georgetown was founded in White County. Although Mayflower existed before Georgetown, its location shifted slightly, and it didn’t use its current name until much later.
Homesteaders farmed the land near Mayflower along the Arkansas River and Palarm Creek. Like many Arkansas communities in the latter half of the nineteenth century, building the railroad brought more people and prosperity to the town. Mayflower provided lumber for railroad track crossties and wood to power the steam engines. The Faulkner County Historical Society also attributes the town name to the railroad construction superintendent who used the telegraph call name of Mayflower from his nearby headquarters.
In 1880, the town opened its first post office and served as a stagecoach stop for travelers en route from Little Rock to Clinton. The town also had a school, several steam-powered cotton gins, a saloon, and an inn. By this time, a Methodist church was also meeting with circuit rider Thomas A. Alexander preaching at the church as part of his ministry. Mayflower remained a small community with sharecropping as its main source of employment. The town had less than 200 residents until 1950. From 1950 to 2010, Mayflower’s population grew to nearly 2,000 residents.
Mayflower’s history isn’t the only thing that makes this small town special. Its location just northwest of Little Rock provides easy access to the capital, but Mayflower still maintains its small-town vibe. Mayflower’s biggest attraction is Lake Conway. The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) built this lake beginning in the late 1940s. The land was too swampy to use as farmland or for timber and provided an ideal location for a fishing lake. Mayflower sits at the southwest end of the 6,700-acre lake. The lake wasn’t an easy addition to the area. It took ten years of advocating and fundraising by the Faulkner County chapter of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, purchasing the acreage from some reluctant landowners, and settling 35 lawsuits before construction could begin.
After the completion of Lake Conway, the lake drew many in the area for its excellent fishing, especially for bass, catfish, crappie, bluegill and redear. It is also a haven for migratory birds. Mayflower’s population began increasing when the lake was finished. Lake Conway is now nearly 75 years old and the AGFC is draining the lake to allow the buildup of silt to settle and to repair the dam and spillway. A number of features will also be added, including significantly more fish habitats, a pedestrian bridge, and better recreational access to the lake. These renovations will take approximately five years as the lake drains, settles, and improvements are made, and the lake refills to its former level. Find out more about the AGFC’s plan for the new Lake Conway at https://newlakeconway.com/.
Even as Lake Conway undergoes a transformation, Mayflower, as an Arkansas small town, still has other interesting places to explore. The Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area and Grassy Lake are near Lake Conway. Grassy Lake is managed by the AGFC as a wildlife area and is allowed to fill with water for the winter months and drain during the spring. The lake and wildlife area are home to deer, herons, wild turkeys and bullfrogs and is also a favorite stop for migratory birds in the fall and spring. The Grassy Lake Water Trail is a marked route for paddlers that covers 3.3 miles with an optional 1-mile spur with Bell Slough Spur. Paddlers can find a georeferenced map on the AGFC website and should be aware of current hunting seasons.
Mayflower’s wildlife management area also includes the Kenny Vernon Nature Trail, a 2.25-mile interpretive trail with marked signage and lookouts. Hikers can find many species of birds and wildflowers nearly year-round on this trail. Frank Pearce Park, also known as Mayflower City Park, is the site of many city events, including a weekly farmer & vendor market during the spring and summer, a family festival in June, an Independence Day celebration and more. Keep up with Mayflower’s events and community gatherings through the city of Mayflower website.
Although Mayflower is a small community with deep roots, its biggest advantage is its proximity to so many other great locations in Arkansas. Little Rock is 15 minutes to the south on I-40, and Conway is just north of Mayflower. Pinnacle Mountain State Park and Lake Maumelle are within a thirty-minute drive, while Lake Sylvia State Park and Lake Catherine State Park are within an hour’s drive of Mayflower. From Mayflower, many of Arkansas’s most beautiful places are a day trip away. With so much within the city’s reach, this small Arkansas town lives up to its motto, “Small Town Atmosphere, Big City Access.”
Learn more about Mayflower at mayflowercity.com and the Mayflower Community page on Facebook.
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