Lee

Formed April 17, 1873 (71^st county)

Lee County (8,597), Marianna (3,571)                

The governmental tan brick and concrete courthouse was built in 1939 and sits on East Chestnut Street at Court Square.  United States Highway 79 bypasses the center of the city 11 blocks to the west of the site.  George Mahan, Jr., and Everett Wood designed this Classical Revival style building.  An 1889 courthouse was also located in Marianna where Marianna has been the only county seat.  A small annex was added later to the side of the courthouse.  Lee County is named for Robert E. Lee, Civil War General.  Mary Ann Martin Harland, who sold the land for the town, provided her name to the county seat.  Parts of Crittenden, Monroe, Phillips, and St. Francis counties were used to create Lee County on April 17, 1873 as the 71^st county. 

Lee County government consists of a sheriff, assessor, treasurer, and coroner (executive).  It has 9 Quorum Court members (legislative.)  Five Circuit Court Judges serve Lee, Cross, Monroe, Phillips, and Saint Francis counties and a District Court Judge, an Attorney, and a County Clerk serve Lee County (judicial.)  The county is eastern Arkansas where the Mississippi River forms the border between Arkansas and Mississippi.  The center of the county is 4.1 miles West of Marianna.  The county is surrounded clockwise by St. Francis and Crittenden counties, Mississippi, and Phillips and Monroe counties.  The county is shaped like a flat rectangle with the wavy Mississippi River eastern border being the exception.  Mississippi is across the river from the county.  Memphis, Tennessee is northeast and Pine Bluff, Arkansas is southwest of the county.  Marianna is near the county’s center.  Marianna is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 39.5% of the county population.  The county seat is pronounced MAR-E-AN-NA.

The area of the county is 619.5 square miles.  It is 55 of 75 in size.  It ranks 64 out of 75 in population in the state.  It has a density of 13.9 persons per square mile making it 63 out of 75 in the state.  Lee County has 48.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 79 enters from St. Francis County to the north and exits into Monroe County to the southwest.