Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Grannis, AR

Grannis is a small city on U.S. Highway 71 in southern Polk County, in the wooded foothills of the Ouachita Mountains.

Grannis began as Leon Station, a sawmill settlement whose post office opened in June 1883 in a region so heavily wooded that no landowners appear in local records before 1893.

In 1896, the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad built south from Mena to haul timber, and railroad owner Arthur Stilwell renamed the depot Grannis to honor a railroad official of that name.

Grannis incorporated on October 23, 1899, as a timber town, but its rocky soil proved unfit for cotton, so local farmers turned to apple and peach orchards, berries, grapes, and melons.

The Grannis Canning Company began packing local blackberries and other fruit in 1938.

Lane Poultry, started by Clift and Dorothy Lane processing chickens in their home around 1952, grew into one of Arkansas's largest poultry companies before debt forced it into bankruptcy and a Tyson Foods takeover that dissolved it in 1986.

When Gillham Dam was built on the Cossatot River between 1963 and 1975, many of the residents displaced by the new Gillham Lake relocated to Grannis.

Grannis made national news in 1975 when several families shut themselves inside a local house to await the imminent return of Jesus Christ, giving up jobs and property until authorities intervened weeks later.

At about the same time, Grannis welcomed 238 Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian refugees who had been housed at Fort Chaffee after fleeing Vietnam.

A 1979 tornado damaged Grannis's school and ended schooling in town; the district consolidated, and since 1981 Grannis children have attended schools in the Wickes school district.