Powell is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in eastern McDonald County

McDonald County, Missouri

McDonald County is a county located in Southwest Missouri in the United States of America. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 23,083. Its county seat is Pineville...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is located on Missouri Supplemental Route

Missouri Supplemental Route

A supplemental route is a state secondary road in the U.S. state of Missouri, designated with letters. Supplemental routes were various roads within the state which the Missouri Department of Transportation was given in 1952 to maintain in addition to the regular routes...

 E about ten miles east of Pineville

Pineville, Missouri

Pineville is a city in and the county seat of McDonald County, Missouri, United States. The population was 916 at the 2009 census, at which time it was a town. It is part of the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area....

. It is located on Big Sugar Creek

Big Sugar Creek

Big Sugar Creek is a waterway in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. The creek starts near the Arkansas state line. Only about of this is floatable during the spring and summer. The gradient is near 9 feet per mile from Highway 90 to Cyclone and 6 feet per mile to Pineville, Missouri. Big...

 in a scenic area. The community includes some homes, a couple of businesses, and a post office. It is part of the Fayetteville

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...

–Springdale

Springdale, Arkansas

As of the census of 2010, there were 69,797 people, 22,805 households, and 16,640 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 64.7% White, 0.82% Black or African American, 1.8% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 5.7% Pacific Islander, 22% from other races, and 2.9% from two or more...

–Rogers

Rogers, Arkansas

Rogers is a suburban city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 55,964. The city is located in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area, in the northwest corner of the state.-History:...

, AR

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area

Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area

The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area as defined by the United States Census Bureau is a four-county area including three Arkansas counties and one Missouri county...

.

History

This community sits near the juncture of Big Sugar Creek and Mikes Creek. Powell was once a thriving community and still retains many remnants of this time. At one time it had multiple general stores, a blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

, a gas station, several churches and a watermill

Watermill

A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...

. One of its general store

General store

A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...

 buildings still stands and is occasionally in operation as is the Albert E. Brumley

Albert E. Brumley

Albert Edward Brumley was a shape note gospel music composer and publisher.Brumley was born near Spiro, Oklahoma on October 29, 1905. Pre-Dustbowl Oklahoma was primarily made up of sparse agricultural communities; Brumley's family was no different. He spent much of his early life chopping and...

 and Sons/Hartford Music Company, which has operated out of Powell since the 1940s. Owned and operated by the late gospel

Gospel

A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Albert E. Brumley, the hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

 and songbook publishing operation is now run by his son Robert Brumley. Albert E. Brumley's best known song, "I'll Fly Away (hymn)

I'll Fly Away (hymn)

"I'll Fly Away", is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled Wonderful Message...

" has been recorded by multiple Grammy Award winning musicians and even inspired the name of a television series. Brumley also started an annual, though now defunct, Hill and Hollow craft fair and concert in a field next to his house in Powell. Through the years such celebrities as Minnie Pearl

Minnie Pearl

Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...

 and Grandpa Jones

Grandpa Jones

Louis Marshall Jones , known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer...

, of country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 and Hee Haw

Hee Haw

Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...

 fame, performed at the venue. Brumley, along with his wife, the former Goldie Schell, are buried in Fox Cemetery just outside of Powell, along with other local pioneers.
Several older structures still exist in the community, but are no longer in use, such as the First Baptist Church building, the Hill and Hollow exhibit hall and an old gas station.