Once a thriving logging community, Plainview, Arkansas grew into a well established town. However, when the Fort Smith Lumber Company finished cutting down all of the timber and moved on, the town never regained an industry. It is now a bedroom community to the surrounding towns of Russellville, Dardanelle, and Danville with mere remnants of the past glory.

 In 1892, 24 year old William Richard Abbott persuaded a banker in Fort Smith Arkansas to back him in the organization of the Fort Smith Lumber Company. This company expanded greatly and eventually purchased 76,400 acres of timberland. The company cut all the timber within the town and extended their railway for six miles to the small village of Plainview. In 1908, they started a mill. By that time, the Fort Smith Lumber Company owned timber in the hills along the Fourche River and they began to build a railroad from Plainview to their holdings (Sawmill). The establishment of the Fort Smith Lumber Company in Plainview, Arkansas led to the development of the town from farmland to a flourishing community.