Arkansas
Buying Land in Perry County, Arkansas
Perry County is one of Arkansas's least populated counties, sitting in the Fourche La Fave valley where the Ouachita Mountains begin, with a land base shaped as much by national forest ownership as by anything the county government does.
A small county shaped by the Fourche La Fave valley and the Ouachita foothills
Perry County sits where the flatter ground of central Arkansas gives way to the eastern edge of the Ouachita Mountains, with the Fourche La Fave River running through the county on its way to the Arkansas River. Perryville, the county seat, is a small town, and the county's overall population has stayed modest for decades -- this is genuinely rural, low-density country, more defined by forest cover and river valley than by any town of real size.
A large share of that forest cover falls within the Ouachita National Forest, which owns and manages a meaningful portion of the county's total land area. For a buyer, that means fewer private parcels relative to the county's footprint, and it means checking a target property's boundary against national forest land carefully, since forest-service and private ownership can interlock in irregular patterns in this part of the state.
A share of Little Rock's drinking-water watershed reaches into the county
Lake Maumelle, the primary drinking-water source for the Central Arkansas Water utility serving the Little Rock metro area, draws from a watershed that extends beyond the lake itself into parts of the surrounding counties, including the northern reaches of Perry County. Utilities managing a reservoir like this one -- particularly one treated with minimal filtration relative to a more engineered water source -- have real incentive to limit development and encourage conservation within the contributing watershed, sometimes through direct land purchases, easements, or partnerships with landowners.
If a parcel you're considering sits in that northern part of the county, it's worth a direct call to Central Arkansas Water to ask whether any watershed-protection program, easement, or land-use partnership affects it, since that kind of restriction won't necessarily show up on a standard county zoning check.
What this means for due diligence in Perry County
Start with the basics common to most rural Arkansas counties: confirm zoning status with the county judge's office, and budget for the state-run well and septic permitting process. Then layer on Perry County's two distinguishing checks -- a boundary and access review for anything near Ouachita National Forest land, and a direct call to Central Arkansas Water if the parcel sits in the county's northern, Lake Maumelle-adjacent portion.
Because so much of the county's land base is either federally owned forest or watershed-sensitive ground, it's worth budgeting extra time for these calls rather than treating them as a formality -- a boundary or watershed question here can take longer to resolve than a routine zoning check would in a more conventionally structured county, simply because more than one agency may need to weigh in before you can be confident about what a specific parcel actually allows.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Perry County
For land bordering Ouachita National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service's local ranger district is a useful additional contact for boundary confirmation alongside the county offices above.
Planning & Zoning
Perry County Judge's Office
Confirming whether any zoning or building-permit ordinance applies to a specific unincorporated parcel.
Septic / Onsite Wastewater
Arkansas Department of Health -- Perry County Environmental Health Office
Septic system site evaluation, construction permit, and operation permit.
Recorder / Clerk / Land Records
Perry County Circuit Clerk / Recorder
Recorded deed, easement, and plat history for a specific parcel.
Other
Central Arkansas Water
Whether a parcel falls within a Lake Maumelle watershed-protection area or is subject to any related land-use partnership.
Want to know if this specific parcel actually works?
Tell us what you're looking at and we'll connect you with a local land specialist who can help you sanity-check it before you go further.
Get local guidanceSources
- Arkansas Code Title 14, Subtitle 2, Chapter 17 -- County Planning — Arkansas Code (via Justia) (accessed 2026-09)
- Onsite Wastewater — Arkansas Department of Health (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09