The route runs through the Boston Mountains (a subsection of The Ozarks) in Arkansas for 38 miles (61 km) in Crawford and Washington Counties.

[1][2] The route begins at Alma and runs north to Fayetteville.

There are many areas and a number of small towns to stop and explore along the US 71 segment as opposed to the bustling interstate segment that bypasses these areas and towns.

These rough roads became obsolete with the establishment of the Butterfield Overland Mail, a stagecoach route from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California that traversed the Boston Mountains in Northwest Arkansas.

US 71 replaced the stagecoach route when the United States Numbered Highways system came to Arkansas in 1926.