Gosnell, AR

Gosnell is a Mississippi County city near Blytheville and about a mile from the Missouri line, with the Arkansas Delta and Big Lake to its west. The lake once carried boats, pelts, and packed fish toward markets on the Mississippi River. The city grew around the nearby Blytheville Air Force Base, later Eaker Air Force Base; military families helped drive school and housing growth until the base closed in 1992. Cotton farming remains a primary industry, and the annual Cotton Pickin’ Festival and Tractor Pull has returned each fall since 1991, giving the town a recurring way to connect its agricultural past with the present. Gosnell is still tied to the road network toward the Missouri Bootheel, with a city community center and Gosnell School District serving as visible local institutions. Its story is a mix of Delta farming, military-era growth, and the water route that shaped the area before highways and railroads.