Stamps District Court

US 82 and SR 53 pass through and meet in Stamps.

Unlike what you might think, the town was not named Stamps because a large number in town collect them or the post office in town sell a large number of them; rather it was named to honor one of the early settlers to the area. Like many of the towns in the are it was established as one of the stops on the St. Louis and Southwestern railroad which came through around 1882. With the abundance of lumber in the area the town at one time boasted of having the the largest sawmills in the South and one of the largest of these was in business for over 40 years. The company which owned that mill also included a tramway which became the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway Company, later a part of the Kansas City Southern which did exceedingly well with the transport of timbers to the mill. When the supply of timber dwindled in the 1920's and 1930's the mills moved elsewhere and the Great depression, for a time, put the nail in the coffin for the town. Stamps was also the childhood home of author Maya Angelou. Her paternal grandmother, with whom she spent much of her youth, ran the only African American general store in the African American community.

Hon. Edward Cochran