Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Jacksonport, AR

Jacksonport is a town in central Jackson County, Arkansas, about half a mile from the confluence of the Black and White rivers and three miles northwest of the county seat of Newport.

Jacksonport grew into a major trading center in the 1820s and 1830s because of its river landing, with the first steamboats arriving in 1833, and much of the trade of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri passed through the town.

Jacksonport was formally incorporated on December 17, 1852, and became the Jackson County seat the following year.

The town was militarily important during the Civil War, and it was at Jacksonport that Confederate General M. Jeff Thompson formally surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Arkansas to Union forces in 1865.

At its mid-nineteenth-century peak, Jacksonport had an estimated 800 to 1,200 residents, and its businesses lined Jefferson Street parallel to the riverfront.

The town declined rapidly after it was bypassed by a railroad built through Jackson County in 1872, and the county seat was moved to Newport in 1892.

The 1872 Jacksonport courthouse — a Second Empire-style building that cost between $65,000 and $70,000 — was saved from demolition by the Jackson County Historical Society in the early 1960s and became the centerpiece of Jacksonport State Park in 1965.

Jacksonport State Park covers 164.7 acres, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and today offers a courthouse museum with a restored 1870s courtroom, camping, a swimming beach on the White River, and the Tunstall Riverwalk Trail.

The park hosts the Portfest 'Rollin' on the River' Festival, which draws thousands of visitors each summer.

Jacksonport's schools were consolidated with Newport's in 1944, and the town's population, 769 in 1870 and 235 in the 2000 census (in 104 households), fell to 212 in 2010 and 150 in the 2020 census.