Created during the 1926 Arkansas state highway numbering, the original alignment remains between Bradford and Pleasant Plains, though it has been revised and extended over the years.

The three remaining segments are former county roads, connecting rural communities to local points of interest and other state highways.

It runs due northeast paralleling the Union Pacific Railway tracks through downtown, passing a city park before bridging Glade Creek.

[5] On the north side of the bridge, Highway 87 exits the community, continuing to parallel the railroad tracks through a sparsely populated agricultural area.

ArDOT estimates the traffic level for a segment of roadway for any average day of the year in these surveys.

The route begins at Interstate 57 (I-57) in the floodplain and lowlands along the White River, and runs uphill through small towns and concurrent with US 167 to Concord in the Lower Boston Mountains.

[4] Highway 87 begins at the eastern side of a diamond interchange with I-57/US 67 in northeastern White County, a sparsely populated rural area.

[15] In northeastern Cleburne County, Highway 87 passes through a sparsely populated area, and the community of Banner before entering Concord.

[22] The segment from Pleasant Plains to Concord was added on July 10, 1957, during a period of expansion in the state highway system.

[9] The highway was extended east from downtown Bradford to the present-day freeway alignment of US 67 on April 17, 1986.

[27] Mountain View is established in a small outcropping of the relatively flat Springfield Plateau, which quickly gives rise to the steeper Ozark Highlands as the route runs north.

It begins west of downtown Mountain View across the street from the historic Brewer's Mill and runs north as Lancaster Avenue before turning left.

Highway 87 winds and curves, crossing Sylamore Creek and entering the Ozark National Forest just north of the unincorporated community of Gayler.

The intersection also includes the eastern terminus of Boggy Point Cove, also paved, which runs southwest toward Norfork Lake.

[29] Highway 87 runs north from Elizabeth through a very sparsely populated area of the Central Plateau of the Ozark Highlands.

The highway crosses Bennett's River near Vidette, and Poor Hollow Branch and Little Creek in the northwest corner of the county.