The Ghosttown of Okay

         

       

                Whether it's the state parks I enjoy visiting or the barbecue restaurants I love dining at, there are few things in the Natural State that are just okay. However, such is not the case with the Arkansas town I recently noticed on an antique highway map given out by a gas station years ago.

                Located in Howard County, Okay was a company town founded by the Arkansas-Portland Cement Co. In 1926, Charles Boettcher, owner of Ideal Cement Co. in Denver, sent two of his employees from an Ideal plant in Oklahoma on a mission to search for a possible plant site in southwest Arkansas. Boettcher had heard rumblings of a movement in the Land of Opportunity to improve the state’s roads and bridges. 

                Boettcher’s two scouts, Tom Dodson and Joe Hargis, recommended a site in Howard County due to its rich deposits of chalk and limestone. Boettcher agreed and purchased the property. Soon, work began on building a much needed railroad spur to connect the future plant location to the main railroad line. After the necessary equipment arrived by rail, cement foundations for the site were poured in November 1928.

                About a year later, Arkansas-Portland Cement Co., the new subsidiary of Ideal Cement Co., was dedicated with the explosion of a 20,000-pound blast of dynamite at the new quarry. In October 1929, the plant began production with the first 125 car loads of cement shipped from the plant. The plant’s initial capacity was approximately four million sacks of cement per year.

                 While the plant was being built, an employee village of forty small homes was constructed as well. Named for the company’s OK brand cement, the town included everything needed by its residents. Utilities of indoor water, sewer, electricity and gas were made available, with electricity and water provided free by the company.  In February 1930, a U.S. post office opened in Okay. The town’s mercantile store provided supplies and implements for its residents. On the second floor of the store was a meeting hall where church services were held each Sunday. 

                 The company also built numerous facilities for recreational activities such as baseball, basketball, golf and tennis. On May 24, 1936, the company’s baseball team, the Okay Cementers, was formed and went on to become one of the state's best semi-professional teams.

                As many businesses were forced to during the Great Depression, Okay’s cement plant was forced to close intermittently, and it looked as if it may close permanently. Thankfully, the company was able to keep its doors open when Gov. Huey Long, initiated a major bridge and road construction project in Louisiana. Most of the cement for Long’s infrastructure projects was produced at the Okay plant. And although many of the town’s male residents went off to serve in World War II, the plant was able to continue operating at its full capacity. 

                The plant in Okay remained in operation for over sixty years. But while the size of the Okay plant had doubled by the late 1950s, the company town was slowly disappearing and employees were encouraged to move starting in 1960. The exodus from Okay began soon afterward when the town’s mercantile and much of its recreational facilities were demolished. 

                By the end of 1972, only a church, the cement plant and the plant’s manager’s home stood. While Okay never had more than about 150 residents, by the late 1970s, just two remained. Though the Okay plant consistently turned a profit through the early eighties, its parent company, Ideal Cement, experienced great financial difficulty. In 1986, Ideal Cement sold a controlling interest to a Swiss-based cement company and the Okay plant was permanently closed in 1993. By 1998, Okay was completely abandoned with few remnants of the once-bustling company town remaining.