KUAR Arkansas’s Amazing Place Names # 35 Kingsland
The Cleveland County town of Kingsland formed in the 1880s at a junction on the Texas & St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, and was originally called Cohassett for a well-known local American Indian leader who had lived and hunted in the area. When the community applied to the U.S. Postal Service for a post office by that name, the application was denied. The Postal Service also refused the second nomination of the name Arkatha. The third suggestion was Kingsland, probably in honor of a railroad official named King, and it was finally successful. By that name, the small town would become famous as the 1932 birthplace of singer Johnny Cash, whose statue will soon be in Monument Hall within the U.S. Capitol.
Daniel Boice
University of Arkansas at Monticello