When timber-companies in the end of the 1800's started looking south for forests a young lumber man, E.W. Gates, saw his chances to earn some money. He managed to get one of his relatives, C.W. Gates, and two investors from Iowa, Dr. J.W. Watzek and E.S. Crossett, to buy 47,000 acres of land in Southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Gates built a small town with a sawmill, a church, a school and a store. The town was owned and run by the Crossett Lumber Company and became City of Crossett. Since a lot of the people in Southern Arkansas were farmers they just wanted to get rid of the trees and there was a lot of timber to get a hold of, cheap.
The lumber industry went splendid and reached its peak in about 1925, when it started to decline as it could not keep up with the competition of western states. Many mills closed down to move west, others tried to hang in, but eventually had to close during the great depression. To be able to stay in Crossett the lumber company started an experiment where they tried to plant new pine forests. This was something new, the attitude earlier had just been to cut all the trees down and then move on to new land. Today, the experiment forest of Crossett is used as an outdoor classroom for school-classes and scientist.

City Officials

Position	Name
Mayor	Crystal Marshall
Clerk/Treasurer	Clark Terrell
Assistant To Mayor	Ashlynn Heintze
District Judge	Reid Harrod, Jr.
City Attorney	David Mills
Police Chief	J.W. Cruce
Fire Chief	Leroy Higginbotham
Director Of Public Works	Jeff Harrison
Water Superintendent	Albert Mills
Code Enforcement Officer	Jerry Bortell
Grants Administrator	Hali McNeice
Parks, Recreation Director	Jeff Harrison
Council Member	CT Foster
Council Member	Chris Gill
Council Member	James Knight
Council Member	Kerstin Mondragon
Council Member	Dan Pevy
Council Member	Sheila Phillips
Human Resources Director	Lisa Gulledge