Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Bauxite, AR

Bauxite is a community in Saline County in central Arkansas that is named outright for bauxite, the ore from which aluminum is made, which was found in the area in abundant quantities.

The ore was discovered in the area in the early 1890s and was first mined by the General Bauxite Company, until the Pittsburgh Reduction Company bought up the local producers and vast Saline County tracts in 1905; that company went on to become the Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa.

At one time Arkansas accounted for about 97 percent of the nation's bauxite production, and most of that ore came from Saline County, according to the Association of Arkansas Counties.

Bauxite boomed in both world wars: production climbed from 200,000 short tons in 1914 to 560,000 by 1918, and under a round-the-clock three-shift schedule it peaked at 6,000,000 short tons in 1943 to feed wartime airplane production.

The mining town grew up as a constellation of camps, often segregated by race or ethnicity, with names like Italy Camp, Mexico Camp, and Africa Camp.

Through the company era Bauxite was never incorporated; after Alcoa announced in 1967 that the town would cease to exist as of July 1, 1969, and most families left, the remaining residents incorporated the town together with West Bauxite on January 16, 1973.

The 2020 census counted 629 people in Bauxite, living in 214 households, a small remnant of the thousands who lived there during the World War II production peak.

The Bauxite Museum occupies the 1926 Colonial-style community center Alcoa built for the mining town, and its grounds display "Unsung Heroes," a 2008 series of life-size bronze statues of a traditional mining family.

Bauxite, the mineral, was named the official state rock of Arkansas in 1967 in recognition of the industry that built the town.

The Bauxite Miners of Bauxite High School field one of Arkansas's storied small-school football programs, with 24 conference championships and the 1996 state championship; their early players included George Cole, later head coach and athletic director at the University of Arkansas.