Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Blue Mountain, AR

Blue Mountain is a town on State Highway 10 in Logan County, Arkansas, roughly halfway between Havana in Yell County and Magazine in Logan County, in the valley between the Ozark and Ouachita mountains.

The town takes its name from a spur of Magazine Mountain, the highest point in the state of Arkansas.

Blue Mountain was planned in 1900 with the intention of becoming a resort community, but it has remained a quiet residential community instead.

Construction of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad line through the area — opened in 1900 and acquired by the Rock Island Railroad in 1902 — prompted the town to be platted in the summer of 1899, and tourists bound for Mount Magazine by train frequently got off in Blue Mountain.

The town was incorporated on March 7, 1901, the same year its post office — established in 1893 under the name Maggie — was renamed Blue Mountain; by 1901 the town had seventy-five homes, fifteen businesses, two blacksmith shops, a church, and a school.

Blue Mountain had a population of 88 at the 2020 census, down from 124 in 2010 and well below its recorded peak of 171 in 1940.

During the Great Depression, Civilian Conservation Corps Camp No. 768 was established in Blue Mountain, with its men working on forestry and road improvements in the area.

Nearby Blue Mountain Lake, created by damming the Petit Jean River and completed in June 1947 at a cost of $4,770,000, was built primarily for flood control but became a recreational haven for anglers, boaters, and campers, and has attracted more than 300 varieties of birds.

The Rock Island Railroad stopped carrying passengers in 1967, went bankrupt, and its rail lines were removed from Blue Mountain in 1986; a volunteer fire department has served the town since 1979.

In the twenty-first century, Blue Mountain has no stores, restaurants, or churches, and most residents commute to jobs in Booneville, Paris, or Fort Smith; the Blue Mountain Wildlife Demonstration Area near town hosts assessments for hunting dogs.