Editing West Memphis, Arkansas (section)

===First settlement named West Memphis===
An early settlement that was established for ferry operations between Memphis and Arkansas in the early 1880s was given the name West Memphis. This small settlement, located directly south of the present day [[Memphis & Arkansas Bridge]], never incorporated and died out shortly after ferry traffic ceased due to the completion of the [[Frisco Bridge]] across the Mississippi River in 1892.  In addition to its lost ferry operations, this area, in the same fashion as its northern neighbor Hopefield, became part of the Mississippi River flood plain in the 1890s.<ref>Beauregard, Michael A. ''Images of American: West Memphis''. Arcadia Publishing, 2014.</ref>

The entire area usually flooded in the spring until the St. Francis Levee District was established in 1893. However, private landowners along the Mississippi River built levees that were only three or four feet high. In 1912 and 1913, the St. Francis main levee broke, flooding the area from the Mississippi River to [[Forrest City, Arkansas|Forrest City]] in [[St. Francis County, Arkansas|St. Francis County]]. The flood of 1913 was the last time the levee broke in Crittenden County.<ref name="Woolfolk, Margaret Elizabeth 1993">Woolfolk, Margaret Elizabeth. ''A History of Crittenden County''. Southern Historical Press, 1993.</ref>