This week, we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day to express your love to that special someone in your life. And while people across the country commemorate this romantic holiday, here in “The Natural State,” we have romance all year long in a small community in northern Arkansas.
With about 1,800 residents, Romance is an unincorporated community located about halfway between Rose Bud and El Paso in White County. As a child traveling with my family, I passed through Romance countless times on the way to spend weekends at Greers Ferry Lake. And I was always intrigued by the area’s unusual name.
While there is no evidence, legend claims that a local teacher named the town, believing that the view from the bluffs on the community's eastern side was very romantic.
And although we don’t know who exactly gave the community its name, there is no doubt that the name proved to be of the utmost importance in maintaining Romance's most visible business — a small U.S. Post Office branch. The local post office is one of several post offices across America that has gained significant attention because of its "love-themed" names. Others include Cupid, Iowa, Heart, Montana, and Lovers Leap, California.
In 1990, Romance was chosen as the first location to issue that year's stamp in the postal service’s Love Stamp series. The stamp changes each year, although the love theme is present in all its variations. Romance has been chosen again as the location for first-day issuance of the 2024 “Love” stamp.
The Romance post office is especially busy for its special postmarks of cards for Valentine’s Day, as well as for wedding invitations. According to the U.S. Postal Service, the office receives, postmarks and mails about 7,500 valentines and wedding invitations yearly. It takes a lot to hand cancel — so much that one former postmaster got carpal tunnel syndrome from the repetition!
In the past few years, a small number of couples have held their weddings on the post office’s grounds. But this practice is not affiliated with the post office.
If you wish to mail your own valentines or wedding invitations with the special Romance postmark, send your pre-addressed valentines or invitations in a USPS Priority Mail or Express Mail envelope or box to: Postmaster, Valentine Remailing, Romance, AR 72136-9998.
While it does have a post office, Romance is not an incorporated city or town in Arkansas. As such, its local government is part of the jurisdiction of the White County judge, who serves as the county's chief executive. Residents of Romance are represented legislatively by the county's quorum court. Local law enforcement is provided by the White County Sheriff's Department, as well as constables for Kentucky and Marshall townships.
There are few businesses in Romance, so most residents find themselves commuting to jobs in the surrounding area — places like Rose Bud, Searcy and Jacksonville. Many Romance residents farm grass and hay, raise livestock and operate meat processing businesses. Romance is also home to a couple of antique shops/homemade craft stores. The land in and around Romance is part of the Fayetteville Shale Play, an area for natural gas exploration in north Arkansas that started around 2005.
A small southern portion of the Romance area is controlled by the U.S. Air Force for use as a parachute drop zone for Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, which is about 33 miles south of Romance. The drop zone was first established in 1982 and has been in constant use since.
Let me close on this interesting tidbit about Romance. If for some reason you find yourself watching the 1988 movie “Homeboy,” starring Mickey Rourke, look closely at Rourke’s character, Johnny Walker. Walker, for some unexplained reason, wears a Romance, Arkansas, belt buckle throughout the film.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Arkansas!
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