How School District No. 56 Became Fifty-Six
The Arkansas town of Fifty-Six took its name from a school district number. Local residents had proposed other names, but after the state rejected those suggestions, they sent in the number associated with their school district instead. The number was accepted, turning an administrative label into the town’s official name.
A Number With a Local Use
A school district number was already familiar to people in the area: it identified the public-school district serving the community. Using it offered a straightforward alternative when the preferred names did not pass. The name Fifty-Six preserves that practical connection, even though a visitor encountering it today might assume it refers to a route, a date, or a population figure.
The town’s name is a small record of a naming process shaped by state approval—and of the local institution whose number supplied the answer when other choices were turned down.
