Drew County, Arkansas

Drew County is regional economic, educational, and cultural hub in the Southeast Arkansas region. Created as Arkansas's 51st county on November 26, 1846, Drew County contains four municipalities, including Monticello, the county seat and largest city. The county is named for Thomas Drew, the third governor of Arkansas.

Located mostly within the Piney Woods on the border with the Arkansas Delta, the county is largely flat to rolling and covered in pine-hardwood flatwoods or pine plantations.

Drew County occupies 835.51 square miles (2,164.0 km²) and contained a population of 17,350 people in 7,133 households as of the 2020 census, ranking it 14th in size and 43rd in population among the state's 75 counties.

Located on the edge of the Arkansas Delta and the Arkansas Timberlands, its fertile lowland soils produced prosperity for early settlers in the antebellum era. Cotton was the major commodity crop, cultivated by the labor of enslaved African Americans. Corn, apples, peaches and tomatoes were also grown through their work.

Following the Civil War, the boundaries of Drew County changed as some property, including Mill Creek Township, was reassigned to the new Lincoln County established by the Reconstruction-era legislature in 1871.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, timber harvesting became a more important industry here than cotton. The population declined from 1910 to 1970, as fewer workers were needed in timber. In addition, many African Americans left the oppressive social conditions of racial violence, disfranchisement, and Jim Crow laws to join the Great Migration to northern and midwestern industrial cities. After World War II, an even greater number migrated to the West Coast.

As a variety of industries began to move to the county, several colleges were founded here in the early part of the 20th century. One developed as University of Arkansas at Monticello. Today, the county has a diverse economy and is an economic center in southeast Arkansas. Its population is majority white; these voters are mostly affiliated with the Republican Party.

Drew County is largely located in the South Central Plains, an United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level III ecoregion commonly known as the Piney Woods in the region. The eastern part of the county along Bayou Bartholomew is located in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, more commonly known as the Arkansas Delta (in Arkansas, usually referred to as "the Delta").