Monette is a city in Craighead County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, United States. The city is located in an area of Northeast Arkansas known as Buffalo Island. The population was 1,506 at the 2020 census.

History

The city of Monette was initially settled in 1898, when the Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern Railroad bypassed the town of Stottsville (about a mile away from the town's present location, founded by Adam Stots in the 1870's) in 1898. Settlers and businessmen in Stottsville decided to relocate to the new railroad. The first train arrived in Monette on August 19, 1898, and the town was incorporated two years later on July 3, 1900. On December 10, 2021, a large and violent EF4

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

part of a large

tornado outbreak A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same Synoptic scale meteorology, synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least ...

struck Monette. One person was killed at a nursing home on the north side of town. On April 2, 2025, during another tornado outbreak, a large EF3 tornado caused damage to infrastructure, buildings, and homes along the outskirts of town. It is believed that no one within Monette was seriously injured; however the tornado did injure 8 others in the neighboring towns of

Bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

and Lake City, Arkansas.

Geography

Monette is located in eastern Craighead County. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.19%, is water. Ecologically, Monette is located within the St. Francis Lowlands

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

within the larger

Mississippi Alluvial Plain The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is an alluvial plain created by the Mississippi River on which lie parts of seven U.S. states, from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois (Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Lo ...

. The St. Francis Lowlands are a flat region mostly covered with row crop agriculture today, though also containing sand blows and sunken lands remaining from the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes. Waterways have mostly been channelized, causing loss of aquatic and

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

wildlife habitat. The St. Francis Sunken Lands Wildlife Management Area, which preserves some of the

bottomland hardwood forest Bottomland forest is woodland on lowland alluvial floodplains or lower terraces of rivers and streams. Bottomland forest is very rare in Europe. The bottomland hardwood forest is a type of deciduous and evergreen hardwood forest found in broad low ...

typical of this ecoregion prior to development for row agriculture lies just west of Monette along the

St. Francis River The St. Francis River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, about long, in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas in the United States. The river drains a mostly rural area and forms part of the Missouri-Arkansas state line along th ...

List of highways

* Highway 18 * Highway 139

Demographics

Monette is included in the

Jonesboro, Arkansas Jonesboro () is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County, Arkansas, Craighead County. In 2023, the city had an estimated population of ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area. Buffalo Island Museum Monette AR 002

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,506 people, 730 households, and 449 families residing in the city.

2009

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2009, there were 1,247 people, 529 households, and 321 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 572 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 96.61%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.08%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.08% Native American, 1.44% from other races, and 1.78% from two or more races. 2.63% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 525 households, out of which 23.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.2% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.6% were non-families. 37.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 24.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.78. In the city, the population was spread out, with 19.7% under the age of 18, 7.3% from 18 to 24, 23.6% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 25.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 76.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $27,500, and the median income for a family was $33,796. Males had a median income of $28,375 versus $20,109 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $16,517. About 13.3% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 20.8% of those under age 18 and 25.7% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Public education

Monette is the headquarters for the Buffalo Island Central School District, which provides public education to more than 850 elementary and secondary school students in Craighead and Mississippi counties. Students graduate from the Monette-based Buffalo Island Central High School. The school's mascot and athletic emblem is the Mustangs. The Buffalo Island Central School District was established on July 1, 1984. Until that point the Monette School District served the community; on that day it merged with the Leachville School District to form the current school district.ConsolidationAnnex_from_1983.xls
."

Arkansas Department of Education The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) is a cabinet-level agency of the Arkansas state government overseeing public education for K-12, higher education institutions, and career and technical education. The ADE also contains the Arkansas ...

. Retrieved on July 31, 2017.

Public libraries

Kohn Memorial Library is the city's public library and one of seven branch libraries of the Crowley Ridge Regional library system.

Notable persons

* Jim "Dandy" Mangrum, lead singer and frontman of the

Southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. History 1950s and 1960s: origin ...

band Black Oak Arkansas * Dave Wallace, Republican member of the

Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House has 100 members elected from an equal number of constituencies across the state. Each distr ...

from Mississippi County; former Monette resident

References

External links

{{Authority control Cities in Arkansas Cities in Craighead County, Arkansas Jonesboro metropolitan area