Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Ashdown, AR

Ashdown is a city in the far southwestern corner of Arkansas, about 19 miles north of Texarkana, and it has been the seat of Little River County since voters moved the county seat there from Foreman in 1906.

Ashdown began as a small farming community first known as Turkey Flats and then as Keller, before Judge Lawrence Alexander Byrne renamed it — according to local tradition, after his Keller sawmill burned down to ashes, he vowed to rebuild and found a town called Ashdown.

Ashdown was incorporated on June 11, 1892, and rapid growth followed in 1895 when the railroad reached town, connecting its timber to outside markets.

Located in the Arkansas Timberlands between the Little River and the Red River, Ashdown's economy was built on the timber industry, which remains a major employer in the city today.

The 2020 census counted 4,261 people in 1,795 households in Ashdown, down from 4,723 residents in 2010.

In 1966 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Little River and Saline River at their confluence to form Millwood Lake, about seven miles east of Ashdown, and a paper mill drawn by the lake opened two years later and operates today under Domtar.

Millwood State Park, on the shores of Millwood Lake near Ashdown, is well known for birding and trophy bass fishing and offers camping, trails, picnic sites, and a marina.

Ashdown's City Park features a walking trail, playground, tennis courts, and baseball and softball diamonds, and it hosts a farmers market on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays during the growing season.

Each May, downtown Ashdown hosts the Whistlestop Festival, an annual celebration of the railroad's role in the city's development featuring an art show, catfish cookoff, car show, and turtle races.

Ashdown's downtown is preserved as the Ashdown Commercial Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, with 32 contributing properties tied to the city's early-1900s farming and timber boom, and local history is displayed at the Two Rivers Museum and the Hunter-Coulter Museum.