[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.

The facility closed after the end of WW2 and briefly served as the city's municipal airport.

[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.