Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Austin, AR

Austin is a second-class city in northern Lonoke County, Arkansas, in the Little Rock metropolitan area, bordered by Cabot to the southwest and Ward to the northeast; it is not the Texas capital of the same name.

The original community, now called Old Austin, was established before the Civil War and included a wool carding factory, a hotel, three doctors' offices, three saloons, and a number of stores.

When the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad built through in 1872 and 1873, it bypassed Old Austin, so residents moved about a mile northwest to the tracks, in some cases dismantling and transporting entire buildings; the new railroad town was first called Austin Station before simply becoming Austin.

Austin was incorporated on October 22, 1895, but remained tiny for a century, bottoming out at 123 residents in the 1930 census, when fruit orchards, including the Murrell Nursery, were the principal local industry.

Camp Nelson, a Confederate winter camp that also became a Confederate cemetery during the Civil War, was established near Old Austin.

Improvements to Highway 67, today's Interstate 57 freeway, which serves Austin from Exit 22, tied the city to jobs in Jacksonville, at Little Rock Air Force Base, and in Little Rock, about 26 miles to the southwest.

A building boom after 1990 turned Austin into one of Arkansas's fastest-growing small cities, as its population exploded from 605 residents in 2000 to 2,038 in 2010 and 3,460 in 2020.

The 2020 census counted 1,215 households in Austin, nearly half of them with children under the age of 18 living in them, and the city's median age of 30.4 years reflects its young, family-heavy population.

Austin has no schools within its city limits; it is served by Cabot Public Schools, with younger students attending Mountain Springs Elementary or Northside Elementary in Cabot and older students finishing at Cabot High School.

Each September, Austin holds Austin Fest, featuring a parade, a car show, food stands, and live music, to raise money for the city's volunteer fire department.