he Ashley, Drew & Northern Railway began life in 1912 with the purchase of the 10 mile Crossett, Monticello & Northern. After the sale, the line to Monticello was finished in 1913 and for the next two decades the AD&N hauled logs and lumber for the area's logging industry. The town of Crossett was from the beginning the fundamental industrial hub for the shortline, bringing increased online traffic from a long series of new industries: from the beginning the Crossett Lumber Co., Crossett Chemical Co. in 1934, a large paper mill in 1936, the Chase Paper Bag Co. in 1945, and Crossett Concrete Products, Simplex Paper Corp., Bemis Brothers Bag Co. and the Textile Paper Products Co. -- all developed after 1950. The busy shortline kept pace by dieselizing with General Electric 70 tonners.

In the summer of 1963, the Crossett Lumber Co. and the AD&N were purchased by Georgia Pacific Corporation. Over the following three decades, the shortline's traffic blossomed with a steady stream of pulpwood for the paper industry, finished hardwoods, and various types of paper products. At its peak length, the route from Crossett north to Monticello was 40 miles of undulating grades over rolling forested hills.

After Georgia Pacific purchased the adjacent Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri in 1991, the AD&N connection with the Union Pacific in Monticello became superfluous. Furthermore, Georgia Pacific's paper products mill converted from pulpwood to tree-length operation, thus removing the AD&N's principle revenue stream. In 1995 an Interstate Commerce Commission petition was filed to abandon the line, and operations ended from Whitlow Junction to Monticello in June of 1996. Operations remain active in Crossett, with the Fordyce & Princeton and Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi now under control of the Genesee & Wyoming railroad group.