Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Fulton, AR

Fulton is a small incorporated town in southern Hempstead County, Arkansas, sitting on the northern bank of the Red River where the river makes its Great Bend.

Fulton is one of the earliest non-Native American settlements in Arkansas, and some claim it is the oldest continually settled community in the state; records as early as 1806 already referred to 'the little town of Fulton on the Red River.'

The community is named after Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat.

Located on the Southwest Trail at a convenient Red River crossing and ferry landing, Fulton became the gateway to Mexico and later to Texas, as most pioneers who settled Mexican Texas passed through the town.

Fulton was incorporated on October 7, 1879.

One of the first railroads planned in Arkansas, the Cairo and Fulton Railroad, was chartered on April 1, 1852, to link southern Illinois with the Red River crossing at Fulton, though rail service did not actually reach the town until 1874.

Fulton covers only about 0.18 square miles of land, yet at its peak it held 647 residents in the 1910 census.

The town's population has fallen steadily since its early-1900s peak, dropping to 201 in 2010 and 115 in the 2020 census.

Because of repeated floods and river erosion, none of Fulton's early historic structures have survived into the twenty-first century.

The 2000 census counted 245 people living in 95 households in Fulton.