Ashley County, Arkansas

Arkansas mahogany here – they’re called pine trees. Georgia Pacific, the third largest paper mill in the U.S., does toilet paper and paper bags, here. Another division prints the paper for dog food bags, etc. And we have a chemical mill that breaks down the paper wood fiber; another plant that renders animal fat,mostly chicken fat, into biodiesel. It’s a pretty large operation. We also have an ink plant, and seven big logging contractors. None has less than 50 employees. One has 13 trucks.” Ashley County has one rail system, but most shipping is done by truck, since U.S. Highway 425 serves the county from north to south and U.S. Highway 82 from east to west. Plans are in the works to convert Hwy. 425 from two lanes to four, this year, and to expand Hwy. 82 to four lanes in the future. That transportation upgrade will be a boon for drawing new business to Ash- ley County, and the Crossett Economic Devel- opment Center is there to help in that regard. “Things are looking up,” says Hudson. “We have plenty of housing and land. If an industry moved down here, they could buy land and build their houses here. We have an excellent education system. Our police department is great, crime is low. We have one of the best Veterans’ Affairs services in the area. Veterans come from Louisi- ana, Mississippi, and we go above and beyond to take care of them.”When it comes to healthcare, Ashley Medical Center offers a 350-bed hospi- tal facility with an emergency room, obstetrics, and an extra-large MRI machine. Crossett is the headquarters for the 69,000-acre Felsenthal National Forest andWildlifeManage- ment project to channelize the Ouachita River. For outdoor enthusiasts, Bayou Bartholomew, the longest bayou in the U.S., runs through the county. Hudson reports, “Bartholomew Bayou used to be navigable, they brought small steam- boats up it. That’s pretty much the way this county got started. The waterways were the way people got where they were going - the Bayou, and the Saline River, and the Ouachita River, and we’re only 30 miles from the Mississippi River. We’re in a unique area. We have seven lakes for fishing and people come from all over for deer ASHLEY COUNTY, ARKANSAS