Bayou-side Dermott stays small in Chicot County
Dermott sits on the cypress-lined bayous of northern Chicot County as a tight three-square-mile city. Keeping the town intimate while still ranking third-largest in the county. With U.S. Highways 165 and 278 slicing past rows of soybeans draped in Spanish moss, Dermott lies 70 miles southeast of Pine Bluff and thirty-five miles west of Greenville, Mississippi. Memorial Day weekend brings the Crawfish Festival, a boil-and-blues tradition since 1995 that swells the population by a few thousand day-trippers.
Affordable ranch-style homes dot the Delta farmland
Single-story homes such as ranch-style homes and cottages, most set under shady pecans, have a median sales price of $36,000. These homes dominate the housing stock. "You can find solid starter homes here," says local Realtor Connor Wilkerson with Wilkerson Real Estate Company. Lot sizes average a roomy one-third acre, and property taxes run just $360 a year on a $60,000 assessment. Owner-occupancy sits at fifty-three percent while investors scoop up the remainder as $500-per-month rentals. New homes are springing up along Spanish Moss Lane, where quarter-acre sites start near $12,000.
Single-campus district serves Delta families
Dermott School District operates a combined PK-12 campus on U.S. 165 that serves just 410 students, giving families a cozy nine-to-one student-teacher ratio per the Arkansas Department of Education 2023 report card. Learners can ride 22 miles to the A-rated Lakeside Charter High in Lake Village. School buses cover the entire three-mile city in under ten minutes.
Two nearby lakes for fishing and boating
Anglers and bird-watchers have two prime escapes within a half-hour of Dermott. Lake Wallace, a 360-acre oxbow ringed by cypress knees just six miles south of town, is prized for largemouth bass, crappie and catfish and offers a public boat ramp and picnic tables under the pines. For bigger adventures, residents drive east to Lake Chicot State Park in Lake Village, where Arkansas’s largest natural lake unfurls for 20 miles. The park adds a marina, boat and kayak rentals, levee-top driving tours, a seasonal swimming pool, 120-plus campsites and lake-view cabins, making it an easy day-trip for fishing, paddling or watching migratory waterfowl along the Mississippi Flyway.
Local barbecue and Tex-Mx
Neighborhood appetites gravitate to Dermott Barbecue & Sandwich Shop, where smoky ribs and Polish sausage slide across the counter, and to Willy’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers, a pint-size stop for griddled patties and crinkle-cut fries. Beyond those anchors, locals snag Tex-Mex combo plates at Aztecs Grill or a fried-chicken lunch from the deli inside Dermott Market Place, with Dollar General handling pantry basics. For bigger grocery hauls or back-to-school runs, most residents zip north on U.S. 65 to the Walmart Supercenter in McGehee, the nearest big-box one-stop.
Highways 165, 278 tie Dermott to region
U.S. Highways 165 and 278 intersect on Dermott’s north edge, funneling residents to Pine Bluff in one hour and to Greenville Mid-Delta Regional Airport; Delta flies daily to Dallas-Fort Worth. Little Rock’s Clinton National (LIT) is 116 miles northwest via Inerstate 530. Drivers average eighteen-minute one-way commutes, well below the national figure, and nearly eighty-seven percent travel solo by car. Dermott Municipal Airport supplies a three-thousand-foot lighted runway for crop dusters and general aviation, and Greyhound’s McGehee station, twelve miles north, handles intercity bus riders.
