Arkansas City ? Rural Cowley County has lost more than 2,500 jobs in the past 15 years as some of its biggest employers closed down in rapid succession.

The 2001 opening of the Future Beef Operations meatpacking plant, with its 900 jobs, brought a renewed sense of optimism.

“When Future Beef opened, that was something that provided hope to the community. They embraced Future Beef and its people,” said Yazmin Wood, president of the Arkansas City Area Chamber of Commerce.

But just seven months later, the company had filed for bankruptcy protection. Then in August 2002, less than a year after Future Beef opened, the plant closed its doors.

The community — which had offered tax and other incentives to help build the state-of-the-art slaughterhouse — was devastated.

“The bottom fell out when Future Beef went out,” said George McCune, executive director of Cowley County Economic Development Agency. “I don’t mean the whole town collapsed, but it had a major economic impact.”

Then in January 2003, Creekstone Farms bought the closed facility — ultimately hiring as many as 780 workers. It quickly became the biggest employer in Arkansas City and one of the top three in Cowley County.

Then in December 2003, the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States shut down many beef export markets. Creekstone Farms, which exports 25 percent of its products, cut production to three or four days a week and cut its work force by 45 workers.

Now the community is nervously watching as the plant struggles to get U.S. Department of Agriculture approval of its proposal to test all its animals for mad cow disease — a move it says will reopen its Asian markets.

“This is an important issue for our community,” said Curtis Freeland, city manager for Arkansas City.

The economic effect of the Creekstone plant to the community is more than $9.8 million, according to a February 2003 cost-benefit analysis of Creekstone performed by Arkansas City using a computerized model prepared by Kansas Department of Commerce.

“We have had a packing plant in this community in excess of 80 years — this is an industry that is not unfamiliar to us,” Freeland said.