Lonoke County Arkansas Landlord-Tenant Law: The Lone Oak, the Rice Revolution, Toltec Mounds, and a Suburb That Won’t Stop Growing
Sometime in the 1850s, a surveyor named George Rumbough was mapping the route of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad across the flat Grand Prairie of central Arkansas. He needed a reference point, a fixed landmark to anchor his measurements on a landscape that offered few natural prominences. He found one: a solitary, massive red oak tree standing alone on the prairie. He marked it on his survey. When the railroad was built and a town grew up at the site, the town was named for that tree — or, more precisely, for the fact that it stood alone. Lone oak. Lonoke. When Lonoke County was created in 1873 from portions of Pulaski and Prairie counties, the town of Lonoke became the county seat, and so Lonoke County became the only county in Arkansas whose county seat shares its name — and both names trace to one railroad surveyor’s field notes about a single tree on the Grand Prairie.
Today that Grand Prairie, stretching across the central third of Lonoke County, is one of the most productive rice-farming regions in the United States. The transformation from cotton to rice happened with remarkable speed: in 1904, a farmer named W.H. Fuller planted the first rice crop in the county, demonstrating that the same flat, clay-heavy soil that had grown cotton for generations was ideal for the flooded paddies that rice requires. Within five years, Arkansas farmers were producing over 1.25 million bushels of rice annually. Around 1940, soybeans joined the mix. Today the Grand Prairie region, anchored in Lonoke County and extending into adjacent Prairie and Arkansas counties, is recognized as one of the three great rice belts of the American South.
Toltec Mounds: A National Historic Landmark in the Southern Third
The southern third of Lonoke County, where the land transitions into the deep alluvial soil of the Arkansas Delta, is home to one of the most significant archaeological sites in the central United States. Toltec Mounds — now officially known as Plum Bayou Mounds Archeological State Park, though the old name persists — is a complex of 18 earthen mounds built between approximately AD 650 and 1050 by the Plum Bayou people, a prehistoric Woodland-period culture whose relationship to later Mississippian cultures remains an active subject of archaeological research. The site was originally constructed on an old oxbow lake that had once been part of the Arkansas River, surrounded by a 10-foot earthen embankment and a moat. Eighteen mounds, some reaching heights of 49 feet, spread across the enclosed area, most used for ceremonies; only one mound was used for burial.
Gilbert Knapp, who owned the land in 1857, named the site “Toltec Mounds” under the mistaken belief that the Toltec civilization of Mexico had built them — a romantic theory that archaeologists disproved long ago. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978. It is one of the largest prehistoric ceremonial complexes in the lower Mississippi Valley and draws archaeologists, students, and history enthusiasts from across the region. The Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery, also in the southern part of the county, raises millions of fish annually for stocking Arkansas lakes and streams.
Cabot: From Strawberry Depot to Arkansas’s Fastest-Growing Suburb
In the early twentieth century, Cabot’s main claim to commercial distinction was strawberries. The Iron Mountain Railroad ran extra cars through Cabot, Austin, and Ward during strawberry season to carry the harvest to market. By the 2020 Census, Cabot had grown to 26,569 residents and was firmly established as one of the most active residential growth corridors in Arkansas. The driver is simple geography: Cabot sits on I-40, approximately 25 miles northeast of Little Rock, in a county within the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway MSA. The combination of relatively affordable land, a well-regarded school district (Cabot School District serves over 11,000 students and rates a B on school quality evaluations), and easy commute access to Little Rock’s employment base has made Cabot the destination of choice for families priced out of or preferring alternatives to the Little Rock suburbs of Pulaski County.
Little Rock Air Force Base (LRAFB), located just across the county line in Jacksonville (Pulaski County), is a particularly important employment source for northern Lonoke County renters. LRAFB is one of the largest employers in central Arkansas and is the home of the 19th Airlift Wing, the largest C-130 training base in the world. Military tenants from LRAFB seeking housing in Cabot, Austin, and Ward represent a stable but legally distinct tenant category. Their income can be documented through the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES), which shows base pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) separately. Critically, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) allows active-duty military tenants who receive permanent change of station (PCS) orders to terminate a lease with only 30 days’ written notice, regardless of remaining lease term. This is federal law and cannot be waived by the lease. Landlords should be familiar with SCRA procedures and obtain a copy of any PCS or deployment orders when a military tenant invokes the right.
Three-Zone Screening in a Three-Geography County
Lonoke County’s three-zone geography creates three distinct tenant income profiles. In the northern hills around Cabot, Austin, and Ward, the dominant profile is the suburban commuter — W-2 employees commuting to Little Rock employers or military personnel at LRAFB. In the central Grand Prairie around Lonoke and Carlisle, the mix shifts toward agricultural operators, rice and soybean farmers, aquaculture businesses, and manufacturing employees at Remington Arms or Riviana Foods. In the southern Delta around England and Keo, farm and agricultural service employment predominates. Each zone requires slightly different documentation approaches. Commuter workers: standard W-2 verification with consecutive pay stubs. Farm operators: Schedule F two-year net income average. Military tenants: LES documentation plus SCRA awareness. Maintain consistent written screening criteria across all three zones and apply the same standards to every applicant for a given property type.
Arkansas Landlord-Tenant Law in Lonoke County
All residential rental relationships in Lonoke County are governed entirely by statewide Arkansas law — A.C.A. §§ 18-16-101 through 18-16-108 and the Arkansas Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007, A.C.A. §§ 18-17-101 et seq. There is no local rent control, no just-cause eviction requirement, and no landlord licensing requirement in Cabot, Lonoke, or Lonoke County.
For nonpayment of rent, serve a written 3-day notice to vacate after rent is at least 5 days past due. For lease violations other than nonpayment, serve a 14-day notice to cure or quit. Month-to-month tenancies require 30 days’ written notice to terminate; week-to-week require 7 days. Security deposits are capped at two months’ rent for landlords with six or more rental units and must be returned with written itemized deductions within 60 days of lease termination. Arkansas does not impose a default implied warranty of habitability; tenants have no repair-and-deduct remedy. Abandoned property may be disposed of after lease termination. Self-help evictions are prohibited. For military tenants, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act also applies independently of Arkansas state law.
All evictions in Lonoke County are filed with Circuit Clerk Deborah Oglesby, 301 N. Center St. (P.O. Box 870), Lonoke, AR 72086, (501) 676-2316. Lonoke County is a wet county.
This guide is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Arkansas landlord-tenant law is governed by the Arkansas Code Annotated and applies statewide, with no local rent control or just-cause eviction requirements in Lonoke County. Consult a licensed Arkansas attorney or contact the 23rd Judicial Circuit Court Clerk at (501) 676-2316 for guidance specific to your situation. Last updated: March 2026.
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