Pickens

This unincorporated community is located three miles south of Dumas in Desha County and 45 miles southeast of Pine Bluff. It was called Walnut Lake until 1932, when the name was changed to honor the Pickens family who settled the area in 1881. Like many Delta towns, it was established when the railroads began crisscrossing the region, with an Iron Mountain depot located at Pickens for a time. 

The Pickens family owned farmland that they ultimately built into a large plantation in the area. R. A. Pickens also established a large mercantile store that later functioned as the plantation commissary. It burned around 1948 but was rebuilt and remains a store and a popular restaurant along the Great River Road National Scenic Byway. The Pickens Plantation Home also remains across from the store, and the original Pickens Baptist Church for African American plantation workers has been moved to the Desha County Museum in Dumas.