[citation needed] The area was explored by Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, who is believed to have camped northeast of Richmond in 1719.

[7] During the American Civil War, troops of the Confederate States Army led by brigadier general Sterling Price camped at Richmond for three weeks in December 1864 while returning from battle.

[8] Richmond prospered during the late 1870s and early 1980s when it contained a chapter of the Woman's Missionary Society (1875); a Masonic Lodge (No.174); a steam-powered machine for grinding corn, sawing lumber, and ginning cotton (1876); a hotel called the Grand Central; a molasses mill, bank, blacksmith, churches, two gristmills, two drugstores, five law officials, and eight stores; and a newspaper called the Little River Pilot (1880).

The Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway was interested in building their railroad through Richmond, but some landowners refused to grant a right-of-way.

[7] Palmetto Flats Natural Area, the largest contiguous block of alluvial terrace forest in the Red River Valley in Arkansas, is located west of Richmond.