Chester, Arkansas
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1978. It stands in District 13. It lies in ZIP code area 72934. It stands on McCaslin Branch. The Survey maps it on the Mountainburg quadrangle. 144 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 840 feet above sea level.
On record in Chester
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 3 records
Chester Masonic Lodge and Community Buildinglisted 2000
No. 12 Schoollisted 1996
Col. Jacob Yoes Buildinglisted 1975
Population over time
13 figuresChester fell from 222 to 144 between 1890 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 222 | |
| 1900 | 174 | -48 (-22%) |
| 1910 | 162 | -12 (-7%) |
| 1920 | 223 | +61 (+38%) |
| 1930 | 196 | -27 (-12%) |
| 1940 | 207 | +11 (+6%) |
| 1950 | 120 | -87 (-42%) |
| 1960 | 99 | -21 (-18%) |
| 1970 | 82 | -17 (-17%) |
| 1980 | 139 | +57 (+70%) |
| 2000 | 99 | -40 (-29%) |
| 2010 | 159 | +60 (+61%) |
| 2020 | 144 | -15 (-9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1898 USGS Winslow quadrangle1:125000
- 1898 USGS Winslow #4 quadrangle1:62500
- 1901 USGS Winslow quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1946 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Mountainburg quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1978 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Stilwell quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
70 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 70 fires within 5 miles of Chester between 1992 and 2020, burning about 917 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 14 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 24 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 August 2012 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Ozark-St. Francis National Forests | WARLOOP |
| 21 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 22 July 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 20 July 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 1 July 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 15 June 2006 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 7 April 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 6 April 1997 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
31 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chester in 31 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 12 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 2 tornado. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2014 | Flash Flood | Chester | 2 hurt, $100,000 | Heavy rains produced flooding that washed out several roads in the county. Two crew members were injured when a train derailed seven miles north of Chester as a result of the tracks being washed out. |
| April 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $500,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down two barns and damaged a chicken house. A fence was also destroyed and several trees were uprooted. |
| April 2011 | Flash Flood | Chester | $200,000 | Several county roads were washed out by flood water and some small bridges between Chester and Winslow were also washed out. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $50,000 | Thunderstorm winds damaged the Boston Mountain Riding Stables along US Hwy 71 just north of Artist Point. The roof of a house on Boston Mountain Road was also torn off and the old zoo building was destroyed. There was also some damage in and near Chester. |
| September 2009 | Flash Flood | Chester | $25,000 | Heavy rain caused flooding in the town of Chester. Severe street flooding occur and water entered a few shops. |
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $5,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down trees, one of which fell onto a car. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $2,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down trees onto Highway 71, and snapped power poles. |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $100 | no account filed |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated to 70 mph. |
| June 2019 | Flash Flood | Chester | - | Clear Creek flooded nearby roads in Chester. |
| August 2019 | Flash Flood | Chester | - | Roads were flooded near the Chester Exit off I-49. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Several trees were blown down by strong thunderstorm winds, partially blocking Highway 82. |
| April 2011 | Flash Flood | Chester | - | Highway 282 was flooded near I-540. |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 70 miles an hour blew down trees. |
| March 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Chester | - | A F0 tornado briefly touched down near Chester. Damage was limited to blown down trees. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 miles an hour blew tree limbs down. |
| October 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 70 miles an hour blew down trees. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Chester | - | Reported at Artist Point |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Chester | - | A tornado was reported over Lake Fort Smith. Amateur video captured this wide-funnelled storm as it moved across the hilly terrain of northern Crawford County. Path length and width are estimated. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Chester | - | Reported at Artist Point |
| May 1998 | Hail | Chester | - | Reported at Lake Shepherd Springs |
| March 2024 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| April 2023 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| February 2009 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| March 2008 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| October 1995 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armada (historical) | 2.7 miles | 16 | |
| Maddux Spring | 3.0 miles | 16 | |
| Mountainburg | 3.2 miles | 16 | |
| Schaberg | 3.2 miles | 16 | |
| Artist Point | 3.3 miles | 16 | |
| Locke | 5.4 miles | 16 | |
| Winfrey | 5.5 miles | 16 | |
| Cain | 5.6 miles | 17 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Chester | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1857654 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 71128. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








