"The origin of the name, Yancopin, has been lost to history; however, there are two legends most repeated as to the origin of the name. "The first legend evolves around a water plant or lily that grew in profusion in the bayous, small lakes and shallow bodies of water. The plant has wide green leaves which form into an irregular circle and float on the surface of the water. The leaves have sufficient strength and bouyancy to sometimes support a frog. In the spring and summer the plant produces at the center a large cluster of white blossoms, from which in the autumn, produces a small nut-like fruit. Ducks and geese are attracted to the plants for food. The Arkansas Indians who inhabited the area named the plant "Yancopin." "The other legend has a basis of fact and has been reported by Eddie Cox, a farmer and member of the Desha County Quorum Court from Red Fork township. From an interview with an aged native of the area, it was learned that during the Civil War, the Confederate forces, who were policing the river, constructed a stockade in the vicinity of the community of Yancopin to hoard Union servicemen after their capture. On one occasion, a detachment of Confederate troops captured a Union Army soldier and brought him to the officer in charge of the operation asking that disposition should be made of the captive. The officer replied, "Put him in the Yankee Pen (the stockade)." After the war, the expression "Yankee Pen" was passed along by conversation among the natives and others until the area of the stockade became known as Yankapen or Yancopin. (This excerpt is from a program entitled YANCOPIN, presented by Eugene Dobson and Judge Jim Merritt at a 1983 meeting of the Desha County Historical Society) Louis Reitzammer at Jackson, Tennessee < reitzamm@usit.net >