Crawford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the population was 53,247.
The county seat is Van Buren. Crawford County was formed on October 18, 1820, and named for William H. Crawford who was United States Secretary of War in 1815.
It is an alcohol prohibition or dry county. Crawford County was established in 1820. Some thousands of self-claimed "Western Band of Cherokee" or Arkansas Cherokees fought for either state and federal recognition as a political entity of Native Americans by partial blood quantum degree. Crawford County was historically part of the Cherokee Nation lost its tribal sovereignty status as a result of the U.S. Civil war in the 1860s, located to the west in the present-state of Oklahoma. |