Marshall

Marshall is one of Arkansas’s finest mountain towns and holds the distinction as the largest city in the Buffalo River Watershed! Located just a few miles south of the Buffalo National River, Marshall is also centrally located between two segments of the Ozark National Forest and is a base camp for a large variety of Ozark’s outdoor fun! Wild elk roam just outside the city limits!

US Highway 65!

Scenic US Highway 65 transits Marshall and is a highly traveled route to Branson, Missouri and the Buffalo National River, America’s 1st National River! The scenic overlook above Marshall is one of the finest panoramic scenes in all of Arkansas and comes with a roadside park, coffee shop, historic marker, and interpretive sign. This is a great selfie spot! Just northwest of town along US Highway 65 sits the Smith Barn, one of the most photographed barns in all of Arkansas!

Marshall is a great motorcycle town and the gorgeously beautiful Growl Lasso Motorcycle route runs through Marshall. On the cycling side of things, the annual Arkansaw High Country Race transits Marshall each year! This epic, self-supported event attracts some of the greatest long-distance cyclers in the world to tackle a course that is approximately 1,034 miles with approximately 84,000 feet of total elevation! The Ozark Grinder Trail is a nearby gravel grinder bicycle trail covering approximately 200 miles and 13,000 feet of elevation in some of the wildest, scenic, and remote parts of the north central Arkansas Ozarks! Close to Marshall are some of the finest horseback trail riding experiences east of the Rocky Mountains with miles of scenic trails at both private horse camps and on public lands! Marshall sits near one of the greatest long-distance hiking trails in Middle America, the Ozark Highlands Trail and is also part of the Arkansas Quilt Trails for painted barn quilts!

In addition to a host of diverse food options, USA Today selected Searcy County in 2017 as its Food Capital to represent all of Arkansas as Searcy County is the Chocolate Roll Capital of the World™. Searcy County is the home of the Chocolate Roll Festival™, whose centerpiece is the World Champion Chocolate Roll Contest™ held in Marshall at the high school. This is a unique competition of local bakers to crown the World Champion Chocolate Roll maker! Reader's Digest July/August 2021 recognized our cultural dessert, the chocolate roll, as the Best Dessert in Arkansas! The local Daisy Queen has been in operation for more than 50 years and is an Arkansas Food Hall of Fame nominated dairy bar!

Marshall has nearby tent camping, cabins, lodges, cottage-style, and apartment-style lodging facilities, as well as a bunk house, and an RV park! For information, contact the Greater Searcy County Chamber of Commerce at 870.448.2557.

The Kenda Drive-In movie theater is the town’s leading tourist attraction. It’s one of only three drive-ins in Arkansas and the only one running year-round. In the warmer months, they have monthly throwback Thursdays that accommodate vintage automobiles, and they occasionally have concerts and other special events.

The Buffalo River Historic Jail & Museum tells the story of the land and people of the Buffalo River watershed in a fabulously renovated 1902 jail. It also showcases native son Elton Britt, the first performer in Country Music to be awarded a Gold Record! The Searcy County Veterans Memorial Hall has an incredible museum of local military history. The Searcy County Library is one of Arkansas’s finest public libraries with historic art and displays and a renowned genealogy department!

Marshall has two nice parks. Raccoon Springs Park has a small fishing lake, pavilions, and a walking track near the courthouse square. The Searcy County Park is located near the Dr. Charles D. Daniel Civic Center where there’s a swimming pool, ball fields, and tennis courts.

Marshall and the local area are also a favorite for antique lovers with multiple flea markets and thrift stores and the big annual event held the first week in October, called Junkfest!

The area is also well known for its embracing of agritourism. The two most visited locations are Ratchford Buffalo Farms near Marshall and Dogwood Hills Guest Farm near Harriet.

Marshall is home to the Searcy County Fairgrounds and the annual county fair each September. Next door to the fairgrounds, the Flintrock Saddle Club rodeo grounds host both annual rodeos and bull riding events! The fairgrounds are also the site of the Kitchen of the Arkansas Ozarks, a certified kitchen that is available for private individuals to lease in order to start a food business or aggregate garden crops for distribution.

The Searcy County Farmer’s Market is located nearby at the old berry shed and operates two days a week in the warmer months.

Marshall was designated a 2021 Trendsetter City by Arkansas Business magazine by winning Honorable Mention in Wellness and Fitness for the new Raccoon Springs City Park and Honorable Mention in Tourism Development/Creative Culture for the Buffalo River Historic Jail & Museum!

Marshall is the county seat of Searcy County and hosts the fabulous Searcy County Airport-4A5, a 4000x75 ft lighted runway, 24hr self-serve fuel, tie-downs, very nice pilot lounge, courtesy car, and overnight hangar space as available.

The town also serves as the corporate headquarters for Boston Mountain Rural Health Center, Inc. and is served by numerous clinics as well as Highland Court, a rehabilitation and resident care facility. Marshall has two excellent campuses for Marshall Elementary School and Marshall High School.

Marshall has high-speed broadband internet delivered by Kinetic Windstream and Ritter Communications! It also has several industrial buildings and nearby available industrial real estate.

Marshall sits beautifully located in the Ozarks at the foot of the Boston Mountain Range! Marshall has a distinct four seasons and is well suited for many outdoor activities. Waterfalls, dogwoods, and redbuds grace the spring forest, hayfields and swimming holes call out in summer, beautiful autumn colors dress up the fall hillsides, and winter brings open forest vistas and spectacular ice formations! Several inches of snowfall is not uncommon.

Searcy County hosts approximately 48 miles of the Buffalo National River, the 1st park in Arkansas to be named an International Dark Sky Park! Searcy County has some of the darkest night skies in the Eastern United States with Bortle Dark-Sky Scale Two designations for sites along the Buffalo from Woolum to Tyler Bend to Gilbert. With a designation of two, the Milky Way can be seen in great detail! Star Parties are occasionally held at the Tyler Bend Campground.