Dermott, AR

Dermott is a Chicot County city in the Arkansas Delta. The 2020 census counted 2,021 residents. Dermott School District operates public schools in town, and U.S. 165 runs just southeast of the center toward McGehee and Montrose. Bayou Bartholomew touches the southwest corner, with Lake Wallace, an oxbow lake of the bayou, providing a local place for fishing and recreation. Wide, tree-lined streets and large oaks are part of Dermott's physical character, including a notable swamp chestnut oak on West Gaines Street. The city still serves as a small agricultural center, even after the rail and timber businesses that once supported more jobs faded.

ATTRBrandonrush / CC BY-SA 3.0

Dermott grew from agriculture into a railroad and timber town, with mills, banks, stores, schools, and a hospital serving the surrounding county during the twentieth century. Mechanization and the departure of the mills shifted the economy back toward farming. The Dermott Crawfish Festival grew out of the area's later aquaculture work and has been held on the third weekend of May for decades. It now brings food, music, contests, and community groups into the downtown streets. Dermott's story is not just decline or nostalgia: the school, the festival, the bayou, and the oak-lined roads are the pieces residents still work with.