Dumas Commercial Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

From the record

“The Dumas Commercial Historic District encompasses the historic commercial heart of the rural community of Dumas, Arkansas, United States, in the Mississippi River delta region of southeastern Arkansas. The town of Dumas was established in 1904, after the St.”
Wikipedia article Dumas Commercial Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 26 National Register listings published here for Desha County · listed in 2007 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 7 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. South Main St. bet. Choctaw and Waterman Sts., Dumas, 71639
When was it listed? May 2007
Category. district
Township. Randolph township
National Register reference number. 07000446 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

1 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Dumas Commercial Historic District in 1998, burning about 6 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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
Recreation and ceremony	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
1 January 1998	Recreation and ceremony	5.6 acres	Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge	OAKWOOD

Every fire recorded in Desha County

Storms near this property

39 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dumas, the town this property stands in, in 39 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 20 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 7 flash flood, 2 tornado. The reports record 28 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
February 2007	Tornado (EF3)	Dumas	28 hurt, $45,000,000	The tornado moved out of Lincoln County and into Desha County about 6 miles southwest of Dumas. The tornado continued to track northeastward and moved across the southeast portion of the city of Dumas and produced significant damage. In Dumas, 25 businesses were destroyed, along with 19 homes. More than 65 additional homes sustained minor to moderate damage. Six mobile homes were destroyed, along with an athletic park. A community building sustained major damage, as well as a 20-unit assisted living center. An electrical substation was destroyed, leaving the area without power for several days. Numerous trees and power lines were also blown down. Farther to the northeast, in the community of Back Gate, 11 mobile homes were destroyed and 12 sustained minor damage. One house was destroyed, along with three that were damaged. The tornado eventually dissipated 4 miles northeast of Pendleton. Altogether, 28 people in the county were injured.
June 2021	Flash Flood	Dumas	$100,000	Widespread flash flooding across the city was reported with water in several homes and numerous street flooded.
June 2021	Flash Flood	Dumas	$100,000	The Dumas police chief reported all streets in Dumas have standing water on them. Some buildings are still inundated. People keep driving around barricaded roads and getting stuck.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	$50,000	Thunderstorm winds damaged some roofs and knocked down several trees.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	$20,000	Trees and power lines were blown down, and the steeple was blown off a church.
October 2010	Lightning	Dumas	$15,000	Lightning knocked out 28 phones at the Delta Memorial Hospital in Dumas.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	$5,000	Some large tree limbs were blown down.
March 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	Trees were blown down in the vicinity of Dumas.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	Trees were down on Belmont St. near the community center.
June 2021	Flash Flood	Dumas	-	Widespread flash flooding was noted over northern portions of Desha County.
April 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	A tree was blown down in Dumas.
February 2018	Flood	Dumas	-	Arkansas DOT reported Highway 159 from MM 0.38 to MM 2.5 was blocked due to high water.
August 2017	Flash Flood	Dumas	-	Water was covering roadways in Dumas.
September 2013	Heavy Rain	Dumas	-	Rainfall amounts included 4.42 inches at Rohwer, 3.83 inches at Kelso, 3.76 inches at Lock #2 on the Arkansas River, and 3.41 inches at Montgomery Point.
June 2011	Tornado (EF0)	Dumas	-	A brief, landspout-type tornado occurred in a soybean field.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	The covered entryway was blown off the front of a church on North College Street.
March 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	A pickup truck pulling a camper trailer was overturned.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	Thunderstorm winds blew the roof off a house and knocked out some windows at a shopping center.
December 2001	Flash Flood	Dumas	-	Heavy rains caused flash flooding in Dumas. Numerous streets were under water for several hours.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	Thunderstorm winds downed some trees and power lines.
May 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	Thunderstorm winds knocked down some trees and damaged the roofs of a few buildings.
November 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	Thunderstorm winds damaged several roofs and destroyed a shed.
September 2011	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed
May 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
November 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
November 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
October 2001	Flash Flood	Dumas	-	no account filed
April 2000	Flash Flood	Dumas	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
February 1998	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed
July 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Dumas	-	no account filed
March 1996	Hail	Dumas	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Desha County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

5 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Dr. J. D. Watts House	0.2 miles	1994
Merchants & Farmers Bank	0.2 miles	1982
McKennon-Shea House	0.2 miles	1993
Dante House	0.6 miles	2020
R.A. Pickens II House	3.2 miles	2019

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 07000446 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Desha County	All 26 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.