 On March 23, 2008, Easter Sunday, a series of explosions destroyed the Cargill Meat Solutions plant, which employed approximately 800 people, making it by far the town's largest employer.Cargill exploded when 88,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia and 100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide were ignited by sparks from a welder, causing the evacuation of at least 1,000 of Booneville's roughly 4,000 residents, and leaving nearly 800 people without a job.Because of this tragic event, the town's population drastically dropped in size and went into what many people began calling the "small-town recession".