Prosperity seemed near when the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 damaged much of the rail infrastructure in eastern Arkansas , and for a second time , the M&NA entered into receivership . In 1935 , the '' ' Missouri and Arkansas Railway Company ' '' was established and assumed the previous M&NA property . In December 1941 , the general offices of the M&NA at Harrison were destroyed by fire , and the shops burned a few months later . During World War II , tonnage increased and revenues improved , but another strike over wages and another fire created renewed havoc . Then in 1945 , the White River near Georgetown in White County overflowed its banks . There was a rapid decline in postwar business , and the M&NA ceased operations in September 1946 . In 1949 , two sections of the former Missouri and Arkansas Railway Company returned to service under new ownership . That section from Seligman to Harrison was operated from 1950 to 1960 by the diesel-powered '' ' Arkansas and Ozarks Railway ' '' . The route from Helena to rural Cotton Plant in Woodruff County , Arkansas , operated with steam equipment from 1949 to 1951 as the '' ' Helena and Northwestern Railway ' '' . A six-mile link of the Helena and Northwestern from Cotton Plant to rural Fargo in Monroe County was operated by the '' ' Cotton Plant-Fargo Railway ' '' , which joined with the St. Louis Southwestern Railway , popularly known as the Cotton Belt . This short line existed from 1952 into the 1970s , when it became the last portion of the old M&NA to be abandoned . Among the absentee owners of the M&NA was Frank Kell , the entrepreneur from Wichita Falls , Texas , who was also affiliated with the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway , Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad , and the San Antonio , Uvalde and Gulf Railroad
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad