Editing Yell County, Arkansas (section)

==Culture and contemporary life==
{{multiple image |align=right |direction= horizontal |width1= 125 |width2= 142 |footer=Two homes listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Yell County, Arkansas|National Register of historic Places]] in Yell County: the [[Thomas James Cotton House]] in Dardanelle (left) and the [[Mitchell House (Waltreak, Arkansas)|Mitchell House]] in rural [[Waltreak, Arkansas|Waltreak]] |image1= Thomas_James_Cotton_House,_Dardanelle,_AR.JPG |image2= Mitchell_House,_Waltreak,_AR.JPG |alt1= Photo of a stately one and a half-story craftsman-style home sits among mature trees behind a manicured lawn |alt2= Photo of a blue one-story dogtrot-style house with enclosed breezeway sits behind overgrown trees, shrubs and grass }}
{{Main|Culture of Arkansas}}
Yell County has several historical homes, structures, and monuments dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the area. The [[Dardanelle Commercial Historic District]] preserves the historic commercial hub of Yell County along the Arkansas River. The [[Mt. Nebo State Park Cabins Historic District]] preserves ten cabins built by the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] in the 1930s. The county also has seven homes, three churches, and two bridges listed on the NRHP.

Upon settlement, Yell County's varied topography created a stratified society, splitting settlers between the more fertile and productive farms of the "lowlands" and the [[subsistence farm]]ing of the steep and less-productive mountain soil of the "uplands".<ref name="harvp|Gleason|2017|p= 20">{{harvp|"Gleason"|2017|p= 20}}.</ref> A [[planter class]] emerged in the lowlands, and as Dardanelle evolved into a cohesive community, the large landowners moved to town and managed their landholdings from stately homes, similar to the model seen in the [[Arkansas Delta]] and the [[Mississippi Delta]].<ref name="harvp|Gleason|2017|p= 20"/> This left the lowlands inhabited largely by poor [[sharecroppers]] and [[tenant farming|tenant farmers]], who largely shared economic fortunes with the small farms in the uplands, shifting the "upland/lowland" split to a "town-country" divide based largely on economics.

{{See also|Gilded Age#The South}}
As mechanization and society evolved and Arkansas became less of a [[American frontier|frontier]], a wealthy upper class emerged in Dardanelle that came to wield societal, political, and economic power in the county. This society remained relatively closed, with separate social events and often summering on Mount Nebo with other wealthy Arkansans visiting to enjoy the cool mountain breezes.<ref>{{harvp|"Gleason"|2017|pp= 82-84}}.</ref> With little of the [[industrialization]] that defined the [[Gilded Age]] in the [[Northeast United States|Northeast]] and [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]], Yell County instead retained an adjusted [[Old South]] economic model based on agriculture but adapted to a post-[[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] reality.<ref>{{harvp|"Gleason"|2017|p= 85}}.</ref>