Maumelle
Maumelle is a suburban city roughly twelve miles northwest of downtown Little Rock along the Arkansas River in Pulaski County. The city is served by I-40 and Arkansas Highway 100. The Union Pacific Railroad passes along the northern edge of the city. The population of Maumelle is 10,557.
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Origins of Maumelle
Evidence of human habitation in the Maumelle area dates to 400 BC. Maumelle was a hunting grounds of the Osage Indians. Conquistador Hernando de Soto passed near the area in 1541. In March 1812 brothers Jacob Pyeatt and James Pyeatt established the first permanent white settlement (Pyeattstown) on land now part of the Maumelle Country Club. Jacob Pyeatt ran a river ferry and James Pyeatt farmed the land. In 1819 Pyeattstown had grown to about 150 inhabitants.
Six thousand acres of farmland were purchased in 1941 by the federal government for use as an ammunition depot known as the Maumelle Ordnance Works. The facility was sold in 1959 to Perry Equipment Company. In December 1961 the land and buildings were acquired by the City of North Little Rock which hoped to erect an industrial park.
In 1967 the land, still awaiting redevelopment, was sold to Arkansas insurance executive Jess P. Odom who formed the Maumelle Land Development Company with the help of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Odom hired Dowell Naylor Jr. as chairman and chief executive director of the company. The city name is a corruption of the original French appellation given to nearby cone-shaped Pinnacle Mountain: Mamelle (woman's breast).
Maumelle is one of only thirteen federal "New Towns" planned in the 1960s and 1970s. Growth and demographics in the city would be carefully monitored and maintained in order to create a self-sustaining planned community "to live, work, and play." In the 1970s the tagline associated with Maumelle was "New Home Town Coming True." The first resident to the new city arrived in 1974 and settled in a home in what is now the Club Manor Subdivision.
Since the 1980s, Maumelle has seen dramatic growth that includes numerous small businesses and large businesses alike, which, combined with local residents, provide a good deal of tax revenue which allows for its own fire and police departments. It is also home to a water treatment facility better known as Maumelle Water Management.
Maumelle also sports its own golf course, the Maumelle Country Club; several lakes, including Lake Maumelle, Lake Valencia, Lake Willastein; a library, which is part of the Central Arkansas Library System; a community center named the Maumelle Diamond Center; as well as a charter school and several daycare centers. The city also has several Christian churches such as Shepherd of Peace Lutheran Church; there is also a Methodist church, and more recently, a New Life Church.
Government
The mayor of Maumelle is Mike Watson.
Education
Healthcare
Recreation
- Lake Willastein Regional Park
- Maumelle Country Club
- Country Club of Arkansas
- Lake Maumelle
- Lake Valencia
- Maumelle Diamond Center
Maumelle Industrial Park
- Target Distribution Center
- Scholastic Inc.
- Ace Hardware Distribution
- Kraft
- Fresenius Medical Care NA
- Kimberly-Clark
- Molex, Inc.
- Cintas Corporation
- Plastic Ingenuity
Other Notable Businesses
Landmarks
Geography and Geology
Demographics
Maumelle is the twenty-seventh largest city in Arkansas.
Population:
- 2006 - 15,115 (special census)
- 2000 - 10,557
