Names from Nature:
Plainview
The Yell County town of Plainview was originally a ferry crossing of the Petit Jean River, and was first called Ward for the two landowners. In 1879 for unknown reasons, the name was delightfully changed to Balloon. When the Ward’s Crossing Bridge over the Fourche La Fave River was completed in 1905, prosperity came to the town, and a new name in 1907. Journalist Ernie Deane tells a tale of an early settler exclaiming, “What a plain view.” This prosaic story has over time acquired details, and now the settler is Mrs. W. W. Gardner who, with her husband, ran the mill in the center of town, and who is supposed to have said that the mill offered a plain view of the area. Altogether, Plainview is a disappointing change from Ward and Balloon.
Daniel Boice, University of Arkansas at Monticello