Polk County Arkansas is located in the central western portion of the State of Arkansas with its western boundary bordering the State of Oklahoma, and was the 48th county formed in the State of Arkansas on November 30th, 1844 and being formed out of Sevier County, Arkansas.

Polk County was named for the newly elected President of the United States, James Knox Polk (D) of Tennessee. Polk was the 11th President of the United States of America and served from March 4, 1845 until March 4,1849.

Gov. Thomas S. Drew approved an act of the Arkansas Legislature cutting off a large part of Sevier County and erecting it into a county named after the President-elect. It is one of the western tier of counties; bounded on the north by Scott county; on the east by Montgomery; on the south by Howard and Sevier, and on the west by the State of Oklahoma. It has an area of 846 square miles and an average elevation of 1,300 feet, drained by the Cossitot and Ouachita rivers, both of which rise in the county.

The act creating the county fixed the temporary county seat at the house of John Pirtle, where there was a post office called Panther. The permanent county seat was located near the southwest corner of Township 2 south, Range 30 west, and was named Dallas, for Vice President George M. Dallas. Actual settlement began in the Dallas area in the 1830s prior to Arkansas entering its statehood in 1836.

In a county wide election in June of 1897, the people of Polk County voted to move the county seat from Dallas to Mena, Arkansas. Since August of 1897 Mena has continued to be the official county seat of Polk County, Arkansas.