We were hungry as we pulled into Camden on a hot summer Saturday. My wife, son and I had decided to spend the day driving through south Arkansas, and I wanted them to experience lunch at the state's oldest continuously operating restaurant, the White House.
As we walked in, I noticed a man I thought was a customer seated in a booth, watching the University of Arkansas Razorback baseball team in post-season play on a television screen above the bar. As we began to sit down, he spoke up.
"We're not open until tonight," he said. "I wish we were, but I can't find anyone willing to work."
I was disappointed, but Camden has a surprisingly large number of independently owned restaurants for a town of fewer than 11,000 residents. We headed up the street and had lunch at What's Cookin' on Adams Street. After lunch, we walked around the old downtown. I noticed signs of life I hadn't seen on previous visits: businesses opening, murals being painted, work being done on sidewalks.
"Something is happening here," I said.
What's happening was outlined for a national audience last month in a long story by Bryan Bender, senior national correspondent for Politico. It's a boom in the defense sector, which already employs almost 3,000 people in an area once known for its massive International Paper Co. mill.
"Nestled in the remote backwoods of southern Arkansas, some of the nation's busiest weapons plants are gearing up for historic levels of defense spending and to replenish the stocks of artillery, high-caliber ammunition, rockets, missiles and propulsion systems that have been siphoned off to help Ukraine even the battlefield odds against Russia," Bender wrote. "Widely circulated images of burned-out Russian military vehicles littering the roadways are the result of Javelin anti-tank missiles.
"A major Ukrainian counteroffensive now underway has been fueled by access to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, which is helping turn the tide against Russian forces. And the pressure is growing to keep the production lines humming to feed what has become a conflict that could stretch on for many more months before it is done. Demand for munitions in Ukraine has been so high that it has drained inventories in the United States and Europe. Thousands of missilies and artillery rounds have already been siphoned off from armories on both sides of the Atlantic and now there is a scramble to replenish them."
The Camden area is positioned to be a prime beneficiary of that scramble. The problem is the same as at the White House restaurant: a lack of workers.
"Where do we find the technical workers, the engineers who are willing to move into south Arkansas and work in the industry?" Mike Preston, the state commerce secretary, asked in an interview with Politico. "We have right now more people working than we have at any point in the history of our state. . . . There are 70,000 open jobs in our state."
John Schaffitzel, president of Highland Industrial Park where the defense plants are located, told Bender: "That's my worry. The energy is here. How do you get assistance and programs and put grants in the right place to give a sense of quality of life for these workers? How do you create a quality of life . . . to attract skilled workers and engineers?"
The answer is a regional approach. Economic developers in Camden, El Dorado and Magnolia once branded their area as the Golden Triangle. Suddenly, things are coming together that could mark the beginning of a new golden era for the Golden Triangle. While it won't equal the oil boom of the 1920s, pieces are falling into place.
First, there's the growth of the defense industry. Next, there's the potential of lithium being extracted for electric vehicle batteries. Each day in south Arkansas, thousands of barrels of brine containing lithium are discarded by chemical companies and re-injected into the ground. Standard Lithium and Lanxess Corp. have come to an agreement to expedite the state's first commercial lithium project at a Lanxess facility in El Dorado.
The Biden administration has identified the necessity of establishing a secure supply chain for battery materials. The potential is there for the Golden Triangle to play a key role in both the country's energy and defense strategies. Most current production of lithium is in Australia and South America. It's then shipped to Asia for processing into battery materials.
"A robust domestic supply of materials like lithium is critical for economic security," Standard Lithium CEO Robert Mintak told an interviewer last year. "Investments are being made by the largest automakers as they prepare to retool and roll out electric vehicle offerings. These investments, and the millions of jobs impacted by them, require security of raw material supply. The semiconductor shortage highlights the importance of diversifying and localizing supply chains."
If there's an economic boom, where will workers be found? How will you convince them to live in south Arkansas? Fortunately, the timing is right for the Golden Triangle. A couple of things are coming together to improve the quality of life in this region, making it easier to attract residents.
The first is development of the Murphy Arts District by business and civic leaders in El Dorado. MAD's concerts and other events attract visitors from across south Arkansas, north Louisiana and east Texas. Those same leaders have worked together to ensure El Dorado also has one of the state's best golf courses (Mystic Creek) and one of its finest boutique hotels (The Haywood).
Now recognized as having the most charming downtown of any city its size in the country, El Dorado can offer the amenities demanded by young, talented workers.
A second factor that will make it easier to attract talent is the amazing growth of Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia at a time when many colleges and universities across the country are struggling. SAU announced last month that it has a record enrollment of 5,094, a 15 percent increase from a year earlier. Retention rates also are trending up.
There are 3,148 undergraduates this semester with a 10 percent increase in the size of the freshman class. Transfer student enrollment saw a 54 percent increase. Add in a 53 percent increase in graduate enrollment.
Programs contributing to the enrollment increase include master of arts in teaching, master of business administration, master of science in clinical and mental health counseling, master of science in computer information science, master of public administration, and a doctorate in rural and diverse education leadership.
Back at Highland Industrial Park, Bender writes: "The sprawling industrial center is now a nerve center for some of the nation's biggest military contractors, as well as some of their weapons that have slowed and, in some cases, even beat back the Russian assault. Raytheon Technologies builds components for Tomahawk and Standard missiles for the Navy. Lockheed Martin assembles the Army's Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and Theater High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile systems, along with ATACMS, MLRS and the HIMARS, which has recently grabbed headlines in Ukraine for its ability to strike behind Russian lines and put invading forces on the defensive.
"General Dynamics builds Hydra 70 air-to-ground rockets and the warheads for a pair of weapons that have almost become household names: the Javelins and the Stinger anti-aircraft missile. Meanwhile, Aerojet Rocketdyne, which opened a new 51,000-square-foot facility in early August, supplies the other companies with rocket motors and other parts. And they are all backed by smaller aerospace and defense suppliers."
In the words of Erik Perrin of General Dynamics: "A lot of the frontline weapon systems we get to watch on CNN so intently come out of Camden in some form or fashion."
Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.