Closing of Tyson plant both blessing, curse for Noel, McDonald County
Aug. 9—NOEL, Mo. — A year ago, Noel and all of McDonald County woke up to an economic earthquake — one of the county’s largest employers, Tyson Foods, would soon close its poultry processing plant in Noel.
The closing, announced in August, actually happened in October, putting more than 1,500 people out of work. Tyson also closed plants in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Corydon, Indiana; and Dexter, Missouri, the last affecting another 700 Missouri workers.
The Tyson plant represented a $40 million to $50 million payroll, according to state Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel.
In the year since, the city and county are looking at ways to rebuild.
“We look at Noel as two questions: one is the short-term impacts and then the long-term impact,” said McDonald County Chamber of Commerce President John Newby. “And there are two different answers to that. In the short term, it was a strain, obviously, on the city budgets and so forth. I think for the most part they’ve done a good job rebounding from that.
“The rental market is back where it was, it’s hard to find rentals again, businesses are climbing back, getting back to some normalcy. So the first year was just kind of treading water and trying to get back to where you were,” he said. “Long-term, I think everyone thinks it’s a great thing. Many people in Noel and from the county perspective, we’re trying as a county to be more of a tourism destination than a chicken plant destination. I think that plays into that, and I think over the next year we’ll see some great things happening because of that.”
Noel Mayor Terry Lance echoed that sentiment, saying he had “mixed feelings” over the closure.
“I was happy that the water usage was going to be that much less,” Lance said. “I was also glad that that wastewater operation would be able to wind down. But I was really concerned about losing that many jobs. They provided roughly 1,500 jobs and that’s a lot for even a large town. And it didn’t impact just Noel, it impacted the entire county and actually the first county or two over in Oklahoma as well as a few people driving up out of Arkansas. I was concerned about how much it would affect the other businesses, and it did. Last year’s taxes came in roughly 22% lower than the year before, and the plant was only closed the last three months of the year.”
But the unemployment rate a year later is back where it was. In July 2023, unemployment in McDonald County was 4.3%. It moved no higher than 4.9% (in February 2024) and was at 4.4% in May, reflecting a pattern that has happened when Tyson closed other plants in a region and many of its former employees simply move out of the area.
The poultry processing plant had existed in Noel since the 1950s. It was built by Ralston-Purina, then it was operated by Hudson Foods before being sold to Tyson Foods in the 1990s. It processed its last chickens on Oct. 20, 2023.
Community rallies
The Common Cup, a Noel coffee shop at 319 Main St., soon announced it was offering free drip coffee to those who were needing the assistance as well as providing multiple computers set up in its shop. The coffee shop also helped residents with resume and job applications, and even brought in a Spanish translator to help.
The Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce announced a job fair, and the state of Missouri sent its Rapid Response Team to help with economic recovery
Students at McDonald County High School’s Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society hosted a community Thanksgiving dinner for those who couldn’t afford it.
Deaton put $1 million in the state budget for Noel, to help it get back on its feet, but it ultimately got cut earlier this year by Gov. Mike Parson.
Mixed blessing
The plant has always been a mixed blessing for Noel — it provided thousands of jobs and those workers spent some of their money in town. Some workers made their homes in Noel but others lived as far away as Joplin or Grove, Oklahoma.
Dustin Shurback, owner of the River Ranch Resort, next door to Tyson, said odors from the plant were a constant problem.
“Economically it’s probably worse, but I know eye appeal is better, smell is better,” Shurback said. “The smell was pretty bad on some days.”
He said the closure meant fewer customers for his food shops but more customers for his floating and resort business.
“I was sad for the people who lost their job but I was happy for the environment, not having to deal with the smell,” he said. “We have a coffee shop and an ice cream shop and a sandwich shop, and we definitely saw some decrease but the sacrifice was worth it. The town’s a lot cleaner.”
Marisela Pulido, manager of the Rio Alce convenience store, said she’s seen her work hours cut in the wake of the closure, and the owner of the shop is considering closing the store overnight instead of staying open 24 hours a day.
“There were a lot of people without jobs, and we were wondering what would happen to us and the employees of Rio Alce as well,” Pulido said. “We’ve seen a lot of change. We let go four people. For me — they cut some of my hours too — but for me it was all those people I’ve seen for years coming in here. Many of them are gone. Some say the town itself seems a little more clean, but to me it looks like a ghost town.”
Plant for saleLance said the plant is for sale, but Tyson has not kept him informed about potential buyers.
He said a few potential buyers have spoken to him about their plans. Some he’s liked and others he doesn’t.
Lance said the future of Noel likely lies with tourism and enhancing the town’s resort image.
More smaller arts shops or specialty restaurants in downtown Noel would help bolster that image.
Tricia Cooper, who lives in Red Oak in Lawrence Court, drives an hour and a half on Wednesday through Saturday every week to tend to her new shop on Main Street called Doolittle Creations.
She opened the business in June after her friend talked to her about Noel. This month, she held her first public workshop on making Christmas ornaments.
“I do mixed-media creations and I saw a post about someone making Christmas ornaments on Pinterest,” Cooper said. “I’m also a collector, and I have a lot of things I’ve collected in my shop. My goal is to bring craft supplies that you might not find. … I hope everything can work, and we can bring more people into Noel.”
Jack and Sallie Devine, who were visiting Noel on Thursday, said they were surprised and pleased to find Cooper’s shop as they walked down Main Street.
Sallie Devine said the couple loves to go to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for its little arts and crafts shops and the local restaurants, and she thinks Noel could become a destination like Eureka Springs.
“With the number of people that come to the river and float trips and that, I mean this whole area is built on that for the summer,” Jack Devine said. “Neosho has spent a lot of time in the last five or 10 years really building up their downtown square. They’ve got a lot of specialty shops and new restaurants. And so we go down there a lot, and friends that we know come up to Joplin and different places.”
“We go down the square and eat,” Sallie Devine added. “If there were a couple of wonderful little restaurants here, we would drive down here.”
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