Discreet 24/7 Biohazard Remediation in Franklin, AR

Franklin is a small incorporated town on Arkansas Highway 56 in northeastern Izard County, just south of the Horseshoe Bend retirement community, and it is one of the oldest settlements in the county.

Settlers reached the Strawberry River valley after the Osage were moved west in the 1820s; brothers James, Owen, and William Watkins arrived from Franklin, Tennessee, and petitioned for two post offices named Wild Haws and New Franklin - but the postal service accidentally switched the names, so New Franklin became simply Franklin while Wild Haws later became LaCrosse.

During the Civil War, a Federal regiment from Nebraska visited the Franklin post office on March 11, 1864, during maneuvers later named the Wild Haws Expedition, searching unsuccessfully for Confederate troops.

Two future members of the U.S. Congress were born in Franklin - William A. Oldfield in 1874, who served in the House from 1908 until his death in 1928, and Samuel B. Hill in 1875, who later represented Washington State from 1923 to 1936 - and the two were boyhood friends who played on the town baseball team in the 1890s.

The Bank of Franklin, established in 1905, is thought to be the only bank in the country that did not close for President Franklin Roosevelt's bank holiday in March 1933; cashier Thomas W. Simpson told examiners he had never received word of the law, which was believable because Franklin had no telephone service and the nearest railroad was fifteen miles away.

Only weeks later, in May 1933, a tornado struck Franklin and killed three people, including bank cashier Simpson.

Franklin did not incorporate until January 9, 1940, when its population stood at 100; it slipped to 75 by 1960, then more than doubled to a peak of 253 in 1980 as the nearby Horseshoe Bend resort development grew.

The 2020 census counted 191 residents in Franklin; at the 2000 census the town had 184 people in 80 households.

An EF4 tornado on March 14, 2025, destroyed three homes near the Franklin community and injured two people.

The town stretches across about 2.13 square miles at an elevation of roughly 623 feet, and its larger businesses have included B & B Supply, a general store, and a feed mill.