24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Gentry, AR

Gentry is a city in western Benton County in the Ozark foothills of northwest Arkansas, near the Oklahoma state line.

The community began as an agricultural settlement known as Orchard City, famed for its apple orchards, and the town was created in 1894 along the line of Arthur E. Stilwell's railroad that became the Kansas City Southern.

Gentry was formally incorporated on July 9, 1898, and was named for the president of the railroad; its first mayor was Daniel W. Feemster.

The railroad made Gentry a shipping point for the region's orchard industry, and by 1903 the town had about 1,000 residents; after the apple industry declined in the 1930s, Gentry shifted toward the poultry industry like much of northwest Arkansas.

The 2020 census counted 3,790 people in Gentry, up from 3,158 in 2010 and 2,165 in 2000, reflecting the rapid growth of the Benton County region.

Gentry covers about 5.17 square miles at the junction of Arkansas Highways 12 and 59, with Highway 59 remaining the main north–south route through town since it was built in 1937.

Public education is provided by the Gentry School District, which served more than 1,400 students in the 2010–11 school year.

Gentry's best-known visitor attraction has been the Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari on Safari Road, a four-mile drive-through route past free-roaming exotic animals that drew day-trippers from across the region.

In recent decades Gentry's population has grown more diverse with the expansion of the poultry industry in northwest Arkansas, and about twelve percent of residents were Latino in the 2010 census.