Higginson, AR

Higginson grew beside a railroad depot south of Searcy. In 1900, George C. Griffith and his partners built a 22-mile timber road from the Iron Mountain depot to Des Arc; the line later became the Searcy and Des Arc Railroad and connected with Rock Island. Freight and passenger trains made Higginson a service stop, with two hotels, two grocery stores, a drugstore, and a cafe near the tracks. The city incorporated in 1906, and a veneering mill became one of its early employers.

A fire in the 1920s destroyed much of downtown, and firefighters struggled when a train cut the hose they had run across the tracks. Only two stores, one hotel, and the post office survived. U.S. Highway 67 later carried traffic on the far side of the tracks, and road travel gradually displaced the railroad. Higginson still has a post office, volunteer fire department, churches, and small businesses; children attend Searcy Public Schools. The Morning Sun subdivision, annexed in 2008, adds a newer piece to a town shaped first by rail and then by the highway.