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Poyen is a tiny town in western Grant County covering only 0.31 square miles, making it one of the smaller incorporated towns in Arkansas by land area.

In the nineteenth century the settlement was known as Cross Roads, because roads crossing at the site led to Benton, Camden, Rockport, and Pine Bluff.

Archaeological sites around Poyen show Native peoples, most recently the Caddo, lived in the area for millennia before European settlement.

The town began as a post office called Burrow, established around 1907 and renamed Poyen in 1908.

Railroad company president James Hopkinson Hamlen purchased land at Cross Roads and mapped out the town, naming it Poyen in memory of his ancestor Joseph Rochemont de Poyen, who had fled violence in France in 1792 and settled in Maine.

Poyen was formed by the railroads and the timber industry, though neither remained active in the town into the twenty-first century.

In an attempt to reverse its failing fortunes, Poyen incorporated on September 10, 1954, gaining income from taxation and the power company.

Poyen is home to one of Grant County's two high schools — the Poyen School District's K-12 campus serves more than 500 students, roughly double the town's own population.

The 2020 census counted 263 people in Poyen, up and down within a narrow band since its first census count of 312 in 1960; the 2000 census recorded 272 people in 106 households.