In the 1830s, as more settlers moved in, a community encircled on three sides by an oxbow in the Arkansas River became known as “Holly Bend,” named for one of its earliest residents, Holly Brown. Of course, the name was also applied to the bend in the river.
At some point, it got changed, labeled on some maps as Holly Bend—as on this 1890 map—and others as Holla Bend.
I’ve also seen maps showing two small communities a short distance apart on the north side of the river, one labeled “Holly Bend” and the other “Holla Bend.”
The Pope County land bounded by that oxbow that was once north of the river is now south of the river after the Army Corps of Engineers cut a channel across the neck of the oxbow in 1954 to straighten the Arkansas River navigation channel. The land was transferred to the US Department of the Interior in 1957 and is now Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge.
It’s still part of Pope County.