Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Denning, AR

Denning is a town in southern Franklin County whose northern border touches the southern city limit of Altus, and it covers just 1.08 square miles.

Denning grew up around coal: after coal was discovered south of Altus around 1890, the St. Louis-based Western Coal and Mining Company bought land, its agent Benjamin Denning came to establish the company's presence, and the first mine shaft was sunk in December 1893.

Denning was once the largest city in Franklin County, with six coal mines providing jobs for more than 1,000 miners.

Denning was incorporated on December 2, 1903, and by then the town had about seventy-seven houses, a general store, a post office, a schoolhouse, and a Missouri Pacific Railroad depot.

Denning's population peaked at 757 in the 1910 census, then fell for decades as the mines declined; its post office closed in 1965, and by 1973 the town was being described as a ghost town.

The 2020 census counted 200 people in Denning, down from 314 in 2010, while the 2000 census recorded 270 residents in 102 households.

A tornado devastated Denning shortly after midnight on May 25, 2011, killing four people and destroying the Methodist church and many homes, some of which were later rebuilt.

Denning students are served by the Ozark School District and graduate from Ozark High School; the old Altus-Denning School District, whose high school teams were the Owls, closed in 2004 under Arkansas's school consolidation law.