Town file
Ashdown, Arkansas
Ashdown, Arkansas is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 317, "Freebird For Life" (10 September 2022). In January 1980 Nedra Sharp, a licensed practical nurse at a nursing home in Ashdown, Arkansas, lived in a single-wide trailer in Crossroads, a community of eighty people near the Oklahoma state line.
- Town
- Ashdown
- State
- Arkansas
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 317
- Approximate location
- 33.675, -94.127
Episode 317 / 10 September 2022 / 66 min / express
Freebird For Life
"We're going to Ashdown, Arkansas, in the severe southwestern corner of Arkansas, right near the Oklahoma and Texas borders." about 0:04:04
The case: Murder of Nedra Sharp (January 1980). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2022
- Population
- 4,359
- Median household income
- $27,906
- Median home value
- $80,100
History, in brief
- It began as a small farming community known as Turkey Flats and later became Keller. about 0:05:38
- Judge Lawrence Alexander Byrne renamed it Ashdown, after the Keller mill burned down to ashes, as a joke at a rival's expense. about 0:05:53
- The railroad arrived in 1895 and made the town busier. about 0:06:19
- Before the Second World War the town relied on freight on the river; after the war more industry came in. about 0:06:26
- Two rivers brought manufacturing plants, including a Coca-Cola bottling plant, a box factory, an ice plant and a pallet plant. about 0:06:36
The reviews read out
4 stars
"Everyone knows everyone and people go above and beyond to help anyone in need; there are chains such as Sonic, Burger King, McDonald's and Subway as well as locally owned Medrano's and Jerry's."about 0:07:35
1 star
"The police will follow you if you are black; an officer stared the reviewer down in Burger King, and the reviewer had heard that black people go missing in the town."about 0:08:02
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Magnolia, Arkansas59 miles
- Mount Ida, Arkansas67 miles
- Minden, Louisiana88 miles
- Malvern, Arkansas89 miles
- Keithville, Louisiana94 miles
- Hawkins, Texas97 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.