GRAYSONIA
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GRAYSONIA |
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NAME: Graysonia COUNTY: Us ROADS: 2WD GRID: 5 CLIMATE: Cold, wet winters, hot in summer BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summertime or winter-skip deer seasons |
COMMENTS:
Graysonia's last recorded resident was Brown Hickman, who left the area in 1951. The remains of the city are not on a main highway, but are located on a dirt county road named after the town. It is located off of Highway 8 about 15 miles west of Arkadelphia and 10 miles east of Amity on the Antoine River in Clark County. REMAINS: Several concrete mill buildings circa 1907 including two kilns, the fire house, water resovoir, a portion of the main mill building and one shotgun house. Several deer camps dot the area, some made from buildings once used as company housing. Several foundations remian in the woods that was once the city limits. |
| William Grayson, the majority sharholder of the Arkadelphia Lumber Company at Daleville (Clark County) founded Graysonia in 1907 as a company owned sawmill town. The town incorporated soon after as an actual city with Nick Peters as the first mayor. The company was first known as Grayson-McLeod Lumber Company, but after Grayson's death in 1910, it was called Ozan-Graysonia Lumber Company. It concentrated on cutting the virgin timber in the area. The mill officially cut out in 1932 and immediately turned its attention to the recently discovered cinnabar ore found in the region. Unfortunately, cinnbar was not enough to keep town alive. A CCC camp was located in the city during the 1930s as well. The city, all company owned, slowly petered out as its residents were forced to seek work elsewhere in the 1930s and 40s. The Graysonia Post Office officially closed in 1950, even though the town was largely gone and grown up by that time. Dougal McMillian of Arkadelphia purchased many of the buildings in the city and moved them to Arkadelphia for use as rental property. Some still stand in that city. Today, the city is completly grown up. No dwellings or businesses lie within the former corporate limits. As the area lies miles away from the nearest highway, with only county roads and rail transportation, it could not last long. The town and all the acreage around it, save some privately held parcels, is largely owned by International Paper Company and leased by deer camps. The orignal town was exactly one section. Graysonia has the distinction of being the only Clark County ghost town to ever be incorporated. The town also shipped the first flask of Arkansas cinnabar in 1932. Submitted by: Joe May |
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