Prior to the availability of the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, or the internet, mail provided the only means of communication between different locales. Today, practically all homes and businesses receive some sort of communication each day the United States Postal Service operates. Many changes have taken place in that service through the years through expansion of services as well as advancements in transportation.

Early in our nation’s history, the mail system proved to be primitive, slow, and unpredictable. But, as the United States grew and expanded, so did its mail system. American settlers moved west to occupy new lands, and their commerce and communication needs demanded dependable, affordable mail service. One of the places served by the nation’s postal service was Arkansas Territory.

As opportunities grew in the new Arkansas Territory, postal service expanded into the area to meet the ever-increasing demands of settlers. Beginning in 1817, while still a part of Missouri Territory, Davidsonville (Lawrence County) became the site of Arkansas’s first post office. It was served once a month by a man on horseback who traveled from Monroe, Louisiana, via Arkansas Post, and then to St. Louis. A few weeks after service began at Davidsonville, Arkansas Post joined the ranks of official mail service points and became the Territory’s second post office.

Certainly, it often proved difficult for post riders to maintain regular schedules over their wilderness routes. In sparsely settled country, accidents involving horses occurred frequently, and flooded streams often caused delays. Complaints about slow service appeared from time to time in state newspapers.

Arkansas’s population grew, and so did its number of post offices. As an indicator that an area had become “settled,” the post office provides another means of locating places where pioneers lived in sparsely-populated Arkansas. These offices gradually became linked to others throughout the countryside via a network of post roads, offering greater speed and efficiency of communication.

To serve ever-increasing population of Arkansas, the United States Postal Service established numerous post offices in small towns across the state, including Hot Spring County. Through the years though, many of the smaller offices have been discontinued, primarily due to population shifts, transportation improvements, or technological developments. The map below depicts the various Hot Spring County post offices in operation as of September 1907. The mail routes’ points of origin and ends are designated by bar marks || and | .  Some of the post offices still exist, such as Malvern, Bismarck, and Donaldson, but others, such as Oma, Stroud, Saginaw, Duffie, and Elmore, ceased operations years ago, with mail going through one of the larger towns.