Everything Paragould is known for
Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Paragould.
Paragould, Arkansas, a place built on railroads and rich soil, hums with a quiet energy. It's a town steeped in the everyday, yet touched by the extraordinary. You can almost hear the echoes of Luther Perkins's guitar riffs bouncing off the brick buildings downtown.
Paragould owes its existence to the iron horse. Situated on the flat landscape of the Arkansas Delta, the town sprouted where two major railroads intersected in 1883, a direct consequence of the ambitions of railroad tycoons Jay Gould and Joseph W. Paramore, whose names the town commemorates. This strategic location transformed it into a transportation hub, allowing agricultural products from the surrounding fertile fields to reach wider markets, and solidifying farming as the bedrock of the local economy. While a destructive fire in 1893 reshaped the downtown core, it didn’t extinguish the town’s spirit. Today, agriculture remains central to Paragould's identity. But ask any long-time resident why people stay, and they'll likely tell you it's the tight-knit community, the kind where Friday night lights still shine bright, a legacy perhaps of the 1943 state champion Rams. It’s a place where neighbors know each other, and where the warmth of community trumps the allure of big-city life, even if a winning streak for the Memphis Grizzlies is just a short drive down the road.
7 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
Paragould, Arkansas, a place built on railroads and rich soil, hums with a quiet energy. It's a town steeped in the everyday, yet touched by the extraordinary. You can almost hear the echoes of Luther Perkins's guitar…
Cotton Belt, Arkansas, nestled in the fertile lands of the Mississippi Delta, tells a story etched in cotton and shaped by the river's moods. Like many towns in this region, its early history is inextricably linked to…
Feel the roar of engines at Arkansas' oldest drag racing facility, built in 1961. This isn't just a stretch of asphalt; it's a living legend. Back in 1961, a visionary named George Ray carved out this strip of land near…
Gainesville, Arkansas sits tucked into the northeastern corner of the state, close enough to the Missouri border that accents start to shift. It’s not a place people typically stumble upon; Highway 49 doesn't exactly…
You're driving through a truly unique place: Crowley's Ridge. It's not like the Ozark or Ouachita Mountains; it's a geological anomaly stretching through eastern Arkansas. Benjamin Crowley, a pioneer, settled here in…
You're about to cross a piece of Arkansas history, the Cache River Bridge! This Parker pony truss bridge is a well-preserved example of 1930s engineering. Built in 1934 by the Arkansas State Highway Commission, and…
Jonesboro, Arkansas, sits squarely in the fertile flatlands of the northeast corner of the state, a place molded by the slow, deliberate flow of the Cache River. The town owes its existence – and its name – to a man…