The city has historically been a transportation and agricultural center in the region, more recently developing a reputation for outdoors recreation and the ivory-billed woodpecker.

Birding has become important to the city and region following the purported discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in 2004, a species thought to be extinct 60 years earlier.

Located halfway between Little Rock and Memphis, the city has used the slogan "We'll Meet You Half-Way" in some of its advertising campaigns.

[citation needed] In 1852, a land grant for the construction of rail lines was given to the Little Rock and Memphis Railroad Company, led by its president Robert Campbell Brinkley.

[2] When the day's work was completed, the railroad construction crew, mostly all immigrants from neighboring towns, cooked their supper over an open fire and returned to their homes when the last "skillet was licked".

Brinkley is situated in the northern part of Monroe County, the halfway point between the two larger cities.

A petition request was granted to incorporate Brinkley on August 6, 1872, at which time the town had 50 qualified voters.

The Brinkley city limits extend north along US 49 to its interchange with Interstate 40, which connects Memphis and Little Rock.

Brinkley is located 10 miles (16 km) east of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, where in February 2004 the ivory-billed woodpecker was purportedly rediscovered after having thought to be extinct for over 60 years.

Brinkley has attempted to capitalize on its good fortune of being the largest city near the refuge and the rediscovery of the woodpecker.

In addition to the ivory-billed sightings, since July 2005 at least two confirmed reports of bald eagle nests have been found in the Monroe County area.

Brinkley is located in Monroe County in the rich relics from the past and rolling farmlands of the Arkansas Delta.