Bay, AR

Bay is a Craighead County city between Trumann and Jonesboro, in northeast Arkansas farm country. The community grew around a large slough and the railroad that arrived by 1883; locals called the stop Bay Siding or Big Bay until the post office shortened it to Bay. Timber companies brought sawmills, and the railroad made the place a regular stop with stores, churches, and boarding houses. Bay incorporated in 1913, then rebuilt its farming base after levees reduced the region’s worst flooding. Bay is a Delta-edge town with a name that came from the water beside it.