Ridgewood Timber Corporation

About forestry service, 72013, Bee Branch, AR, US, Arkansas

Batesville is the largest city in and the county seat of Independence County, Arkansas, United States, 80 miles (128 km) northeast of Little Rock, the state capital. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city was 10,268. The city serves as a regional manufacturing and distribution hub for the Ozark Mountain region and Northeast Arkansas. == History == Batesville is the second oldest municipality after the town of Georgetown — and the oldest city — in the state of Arkansas. It was named for the first territorial delegate from Arkansas to the Congress of the United States, James Woodson Bates, who settled in the town. The town has also gone by the names of Napoleon and Poke Bayou. In early days, Batesville was an important port on the White River and served as an entry point to the interior of northern Arkansas. Batesville played a large role in the settling of the Ozark Mountains region and served as the central land office for northern Arkansas. The first known settlement of the Batesville area was in 1810 near the mouth of Polk Bayou, and by 1819 the town had a ferry across the White River and about a dozen houses. The town was partially laid out in early 1821, and on March 3, 1822, a bill of assurance was recorded and executed and the town's plat was laid out.