LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Region is a prime spot for tourism, industry
The four states region is a prime location for being uptown and country.
It’s a gem of a location, with real diamonds to be found by digging in the dirt at Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Ark.
The region is prime for tourism and industry, but has bigger cities nearby such as Dallas (180 miles), Little Rock (144 miles) and Shreveport, La., (72 miles) and natural beauty in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana including Beaver’s Bend State Park, just 82 miles away near Broken Bow, Okla., and DeGray Lake, about 87 miles from Texarkana and just past Arkadelphia, Ark.
The late Marion Crank of Foreman, Ark., who served as an Arkansas speaker of the House until he lost a bid for governor, told a story about the generation after World War II who worked together to change the face of Little River County and the region.
It takes a lesson in history to understand what is needed in the future.
According to Crank, about 40 people in Little River County decided changes were needed and organized a committee.
The county needed flood control. Farming income was damaged and along with the timber business by flood waters.
An idea was developed to have a flood-control dam where the Red and Little rivers merge in Southwest Little River County. That led to plans for dams near De Queen, Dierks and Gillham in Arkansas.
The group was successful and lobbied state and national officials until the funding was obtained.
Highway plans were formed for widening and improving what would become state Highway 41 and paving state Highway 32 from Ashdown to Foreman.
The committee also wanted a bridge across the Red River. Motorists were having to use a ferry to cross the Red River at what is now Highway 41.
Plans were made and funded to replace the Index bridge across the Red River at U.S. Highway 71 and build a second bridge to accommodate U.S. 71’s becoming four-lane from Texarkana to the north side of Ashdown.
Crank said in 1941, a plan was discussed about making U.S. Highway 71 four lane from Fort Smith through Ashdown to Shreveport, La. The four lanes would help the military travel through the area during the war.
It was probably the forerunner to Interstate 49.
Foreman Cement was created west of Foreman to produce cement for the national highway program, which became the interstate system.
Crank said she was friends with Witt Stephens, who owned a natural gas company called Arkla Gas. The company had surplus natural gas to sell, and the Foreman region had surplus limestone. Limestone is needed to produce cement, and natural gas was burned to heat the kilns in the production. It was a common sense idea. A large amount of water was needed when Nekoosa Papers was looking for a place in the south to build a paper mill in the mid-1960s. The regional water district provided the 1 million gallons of water used daily to produce paper.
Operating the paper mill was profitable, and the mill has been able to expand several times and keeps operating. As the vision of leaders became clear, residents could see a surge in growth.
The industry in the area changed within about 25 years: International Paper also grew at Domino in Texas and changed the economics of the region.
Red River Army Depot was the centerpiece of the job market, and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. produced tires for worldwide distribution.
Now with Interstate 49 in Texarkana, more growth is expected.
Motorists on Interstate 30 like to stop in Texarkana while traveling to Dallas, Memphis or Little Rock, and the growth of national-chain hotels along the interstate is evidence that Texarkana has become at least a prime overnight location.
Texarkana Regional Airport, in addition to airports in De Queen and Hope, Ark., feed industrial growth.
Amtrak passenger train service is available with stops in Texarkana, Hope and Arkadelphia.
Freight train service can ship products north, south, east and west. With the opening of the AEP-Southwestern Electric Co. power plant near Fulton, Ark., the number of coal trains coming to the region increased.
As the trains increase, this region could become a prime place for shipping yards somewhere near industries such as the Domtar mill or International mill. The shipping yards could serve intermodal transportation— and trucks.
The mills might be able to use additional rail service to ship products to New Orleans or Houston and then overseas.
The Panama Canal is being widened to allow supertankers to ship additional products from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico.
A freight service combining ships, trains and trucks could haul products to and from this region.
The region is prime for the beauty of nature and rides on the Cossatot River rapids.
The foothills of the Ozarks start at Ben Lomond, Ark., and ascend into the Ouachita Mountains.
In Murfreesboro, Ark., the Crater of Diamonds State Park offers visitors a chance to find a diamond in the only diamond mine in the U.S. by digging in the dirt.
The region is also ripe with history and tourism.
History is alive in the region, from Historic Washington, Ark., to Bill Clinton’s childhood home in Hope. Mike Huckabee, a native of Hope and also served as Arkansas governor, has announced as a candidate for president in 2016.
For entertainment, the auditoriums in Hope and Texarkana have a history as being a part of the rock music frontier. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins performed in Texarkana, along with lots of musical pioneers in genres from rock to rock-a-billy.
Composer Scott Joplin was a Texarkana ragtime legend.
With the Hope Watermelon Festival, the region got a slice of the good life, with massive watermelons exceeding 200 pounds.
The festival is now more than a century old.
In Texarkana, the region is becoming medical care hub, with two hospitals and many supporting clinics.
If elected officials focus their vision, the region could create innovative industry and become a prime place to live, work or visit.