[4] Forestry was an early industry, spurred by the massive harvesting of lumber needed to rebuild Chicago following the Great Fire of 1871.

The lumber industry brought sawmills and a rowdy crowd, and the area was known for its disreputable saloon culture during the 1880s and 1890s.

[4] The Paragould Southeastern Railway, which served the logging industry, arrived in town in 1907.

[5] The cleared forests enabled cotton farming to take hold, encouraged by ongoing levee building and waterway management; the population grew significantly after 1900.

On Blytheville's western edge lies one of the largest cotton gins in North America.

[4] The area northwest of the town was developed into an "advanced" pilot training school for the Army Air Forces in 1942.

Nucor Steel opened a plant east of Blytheville, on the Mississippi River, in 1987.

[8] After James Sanders’ retirement in 2023, local accountant and veteran Melissa Logan was elected as the city’s first female black mayor.

[1] The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

[11] As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 13,406 people, 5,674 households, and 3,644 families residing in the city.

[18] Aviation Repair Technologies (ART) is headquartered at Arkansas International Airport in Blytheville and employs approximately 120 employees.

It offers a two-year program, and is the United States' first community college with a solar photovoltaic prototype facility.

The Heartland Division of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad runs through downtown Blytheville.