Paragould District Court

Paragould District Court is one of two state district courts in Greene county and is located in the same building as the Circuit and the County courts. US 49, US 49 Business, US 412 and SR 1 all pass through Paragould.

Jay Gould of the the Iron Mountain railroad and James A. Paramore of the Texas-St. Louis railroad built railroads which competed which other for business from Arkansas. The rail lines ran from Greene County; Paramore’s line connecting Arkansas to Texas and Gould’s line running South to Helena and a town was formed where the lines crossed. A post office was established for the town and the postmaster named it Paragould by combining the names of the two railroad men. With the many hardwood forests that surrounded the area, by 1890 Paragould had 14 lumber mills and its economy prospered. In the 1930's the town experienced two events which made the news. A meteorite struck Southwest of the town leaving two fragments, one weighing 75 pounds and the other 820 pounds. Two men who were fishing near Hurricane Creek discovered a three-and-a-half-foot long bone buried deep in the sand which was determined to be the bones of a 10,000-year-old mastodon.