It is named after Marcus LaRue Harrison, a surveyor who laid out the city along Crooked Creek at Stifler Springs.

[8] Native Americans were the earliest inhabitants of the area, probably beginning with cliff dwellers who lived in caves in the bluffs along the rivers.

In later times, the Osage, a branch of the Sioux, was the main tribe in the Ozarks, and one of their larger villages is thought to have been to the east of the present site of Harrison.

It is possible that the first Europeans to visit the area were some forty followers of Hernando de Soto and that they camped at a Native village on the White River at the mouth of Bear Creek.

[11] In 1905 and 1909, white race riots occurred in Harrison, which drove away black residents and established the community as one of hundreds of sundown towns in the country.

[14] The white mob then went to the Black community and burned their houses and fired guns at their windows with the message that they should leave the town.

[15] On May 7, 1961, heavy rain caused Crooked Creek, immediately south of the downtown business district, to flood the town square and much of the southwestern part of the city.

[18][19] Harrison's Community Task Force on Race Relations[8] was established in 2003 to "promote diversity and respond to racial-bias accusations against the city".

[20] City officials have made efforts to counteract organized racist activity with educational forums and billboards promoting tolerance.

[21] They also attempted to downplay the city's racist reputation and improve its image by editing the town's Wikipedia article.

[24] In 2017, Mayor Dan Sherrell and Boone County Judge Robert Hathaway signed proclamations recognizing June as Confederate Heritage and History Month.

He returned in 2007, and in 2019 was recognized by mayor Jerry Jackson when Harrison issued its first-ever Black History Month proclamation.

[26] In June 2020, a group of around 300 gathered in Harrison to protest police brutality in the murder of George Floyd while 15 people armed with rifles and displaying Confederate and American flags looked on.

[27] As of October 2023,[update] the Southern Poverty Law Center has said that Kingdom Identity Ministries (founded in Harrison) has a location in the city.

It contains a large number of the city's original commercial and governmental structures, including the still-used courthouse in the center of the square, the recently refurbished Lyric Theater, and the 1929 Hotel Seville, which underwent a complete restoration in 2008.

"[40] It provides administrative support and distributes financial and in-kind donations to its member organizations: The historic Lyric Theatre is managed by the Ozark Arts Council.

[citation needed] Crooked Creek, a nationally recognized "Blue Ribbon" smallmouth bass fishery, flows through Harrison.

[43] Hemmed-In-Hollow Falls, at 209 feet (64 m) the tallest waterfall between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, is located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Harrison near Compton.

KWBM, a Daystar affiliate, is also licensed to Harrison, however its offices are in Springfield, while its transmitter is located in Taney County, Missouri.

Scheduled flights from Harrison to Memphis, Tennessee, and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, are offered by Southern Airways Express.

[52] In 2020, the video Holding a Black Lives Matter Sign in America's Most Racist Town was filmed in Harrison.