Products of the Ozark Mountain Region

John Tyson purchased a broiler farm in Springdale in In 1947, he founded Tyson Feed and Hatchery that provided 3 services: sale of baby chicks, sale of chicken feed, & transportation of chickens to market. In the late 1950’s John’s son Don built Tyson’s first chicken processing plant in Springdale.

By the 1980’s Tyson had become the world’s largest producer & processor of chicken. Tyson has plants in 31 Arkansas cities. It is estimated that 1 in 10 Arkansans work in some business associated with chickens.

Sam Walton opened the first Wal*Mart in Rogers in There are now Wal*Mart stores all over the United States as well as in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Wal*Mart is a leading employer of Hispanic Americans & African Americans.

Ray Yarnell bought a dairy plant in Searcy and founded Yarnell Ice Cream Company in In 1978 Yarnell’s introduced the first all natural ice milk in the United States. Yarnell’s was the first to develop fat-free, sugar-free ice cream in They can make 360,000 ice cream bars in one day.

Yarnell’s uses 200,000 gallons of milk a week to make their ice cream. It takes over 1,200 cows to provide that much milk. Once the ice cream is made it goes into a “Blast Freezer” where the temperature is -40°, and the wind chill is -100°. Yarnell’s employees get to eat ice cream every day.

Tourism Tourists come to the Ozark Mountain Region to explore the underground caves at Blanchard Springs Caverns.Blanchard Springs Caverns Blanchard Springs Caverns are located northwest of Mountain View. Tourists come to canoe on the Buffalo River. Beaver Lake & Norfolk Lake are popular recreational areas as well.

Timber The forests of the Ozark Mountain Region is mostly hardwood. Oak and Hickory Trees are numerous. Timber is a leading industry in the communities of Leslie and Shirley. “Timber” means forest trees that are used for buildings or making wood products. Trees and timber cover over 17 million acres of Arkansas—that’s almost half of the state.