Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in McDougal, AR

McDougal is a small city in Clay County in northeastern Arkansas, lying on U.S. Highway 62 about halfway between Piggott and Corning, Clay County's two county seats.

McDougal was established in 1914 as a stop on a branch line of the Butler County Railroad connecting Piggott with Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

The railroad ran deep into the hardwood forests west of Crowley's Ridge to haul out harvested timber, and McDougal was one of three towns founded along the line, alongside Hickoria and Tipperary.

The town was probably named for a railroad worker, and its depot and general store were built in 1914, with a post office following in 1916.

Within about a dozen years the local timber was cut out; the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (the Frisco) acquired the branch in 1927 and began removing the rails from McDougal to Tipperary.

McDougal did not incorporate until December 14, 1954, likely so residents could gain paved streets and local water and sewer services.

The town's population peaked at 328 in the 1970 census and has declined since, to 186 people in 87 households in 2010 and just 134 people in the 2020 census.

McDougal covers only about 0.37 square miles, all of it land, a few miles south of the Missouri state line.

Unlike many Arkansas railroad towns that vanished when the timber ran out, McDougal has survived into the twenty-first century largely because of its position on U.S. Highway 62.