Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Shirley, AR

Shirley is a town in northeastern Van Buren County, Arkansas, resting on the Middle Fork of the Little Red River in the Ozark hills.

The town was established by the railroad: in 1907 and 1908 the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad (M&NA) built a bridge across the Little Red River here and set up a depot, around which a community rapidly formed.

Shirley's post office opened in 1909, and the town incorporated on November 18, 1911; the name Shirley is believed to come from the surname of a railroad worker in the area.

Before the railroad arrived, the site had been quiet farmland — John G. Nixon and Elijah M. Sowell had acquired land at the future townsite as early as 1859.

Shirley grew quickly on the timber trade the railroad made possible, and by the 1920s it had a school, a jail, about a dozen stores, three hotels, three barbershops, two blacksmith shops, an ice plant, a stave mill, four doctors, a bank, and its own newspaper, the Shirley Advocate.

The town's population peaked at 365 in the 1940 census, then eased downward over the decades to 337 in 2000, 291 in 2010, and 248 in the 2020 census.

Shirley covers about 2.41 square miles at an elevation of roughly 551 feet, and it lies on Arkansas Highway 9 about 11 miles northeast of Clinton, the Van Buren County seat.

Public education in Shirley is provided by the Shirley School District, which operates Shirley Elementary School and Shirley High School.

The Shirley Centennial Museum, opened in 2011 for the town's hundredth anniversary, preserves historical publications, newspaper accounts, family histories, photographs, and quilts from the community.

Once a railroad outpost, Shirley today is an agricultural center for its region that also draws recreation and tourism from the Little Red River and nearby Greers Ferry Lake.