Location of Delight in Pike County, Arkansas. Delight is a town in Pike County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 279 at the 2010 census. Wife delight decades after Pike County was formed and almost seventy years after Arkansas became a state, Delight became an incorporated town.
The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Quapaw Indians, a tribe of the great Dakotas who at one time had a population of many thousands. By the end of the eighteenth century, white settlers had begun making their homes near the banks of Wolf Creek. This acreage covers the present site of Delight. A few years later the land was sold to S. Dixon and wife, Nancy, who in turn sold it to Abner H. The coming of the new railroad brought new industry to Delight. F Key was interested in the timber business and he saw in the forests of virgin timber a veritable gold mine.
He secured a site and proceeded to build a saw mill and planer. Early on a morning 1897 the whistle sounded and the wheels began to turn. Lumber was shipped far and near on the railroad but it was also used to build new houses for the residents of the Delight. Business boomed and so did Delight. About the year 1909 Key sold his saw mill and planer to the Blakely brothers and for six to seven years they continued to operate the mill. But the forest had been mostly cut over and the saw mill business could no longer be profitable to the owners.
So the business was closed and people became interested in other work. Farming was one of the principal occupations with cotton as the leading crop. By 1919 Delight was a very good cotton market. The twenties were very prosperous years.
The community is in the South Pike County School District, which operates Delight Elementary School and Murfreesboro High School. It was previously a part of the Delight School District, which operated Delight Elementary and Delight High School. The Delight High school mascot was a bulldog and colors are blue and gold. Throughout Delight’s history basketball has always been a huge part of the community.