Sheridan · Leola · Prattsville

Timber Country Crane Training for Grant County

Pine timber built Grant County and still holds it together. Sheridan, the seat, holds Timberfest every October, logging crews work the pine and hardwood stands across the county, and Kohler runs a faucet and plastics manufacturing site in town. Between Little Rock and Pine Bluff, the county also supplies a lot of commuting tradespeople to larger jobs in Pulaski, Saline and Jefferson counties. For anyone who runs a knuckleboom loader, boom truck or crane, accredited certification is what employers on both sides of the county line look for.

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From log trucks to plant floors

Logs cut in Grant County have long gone to sawmills in Leola and nearby towns and to the paper mill in Pine Bluff; a railroad built to Pine Bluff around 1899–1900 was laid largely to haul timber. Today the work is done with modern harvesting equipment, but the lifting skills carry over. Knuckleboom operators who load trucks already understand capacity and stability; certification turns that experience into a credential a construction contractor can use.

Sheridan's manufacturing has grown over the past few decades. Kohler's site produces kitchen and bath products, and plant equipment moves, press installs and building work at factories like it need qualified riggers and operators.

Kohler has also invested in the local workforce: the company donated about $150,000 in equipment to set up the Kohler Academy at Sheridan High School.

Working the Little Rock–Pine Bluff corridor

Many Grant County tradespeople drive north to Little Rock and Benton or south to Pine Bluff for steel erection, plant outages and commercial construction. Those contractors generally expect operators to carry a national certification under 29 CFR 1926.1427 and riggers to meet the qualified rigger rules in 1926.1425 and 1926.1404. Arkansas has no state license to add on top. Written exams can be scheduled by Online Proctored Testing, and Little Rock is under an hour from Sheridan when it's time to look at practical test options through the certifying body.

Bypass, school and road jobs at home

Not every job requires leaving the county. The US 167 Sheridan Bypass, an 8.5-mile, roughly $25 million route that went under construction in 2010, opened in 2014 to move through traffic out of downtown. Sheridan High School later added a two-story, 148,000-square-foot addition costing about $25 million, paid for by a 2016 millage increase, with classrooms, career and technical shops and a 2,200-seat arena. Long-span arena roofs and steel frames of that size are set by mobile cranes, with riggers and a signal person on every pick.

Routine road work continues as well. ARDOT bid listings in 2025 included a mill-and-overlay job on about 5.2 miles of US 270 crossing into Jefferson County, and a January 2026 listing covered about 8.3 miles of Highway 167 in Grant County. Resurfacing is mostly paving equipment, but drainage structures, sign trusses and bridge rail repairs along these routes bring boom trucks and small cranes onto shoulders with traffic going by.

Courses Grant County workers tend to start with

Questions people ask

Does a log loader on a timber tract need crane certification?

Logging is not construction, so Subpart CC usually doesn't apply in the woods. The certification matters when you take a crane or knuckleboom onto a construction site.

What about wet ground in the pine flats?

Low, sandy and clay ground in south-central Arkansas can soften after heavy rain. Exam prep covers ground conditions, cribbing and outrigger support because they show up on written tests.

What changes when I lift beside a live highway lane?

Swing radius, outrigger placement and the load path all have to stay clear of traffic, and the work-zone traffic control plan sets limits on where the crane can sit. A signal person and a clear plan for which lanes are closed belong in the pre-lift meeting.

Can a small Sheridan company enroll several workers?

Yes. Use the enrollment form to set up crew access, and an enrollment advisor will reply.

Suggested courses for this area

  • Articulating Crane Operator

    Written exam prep for the three NCCCO articulating crane designations, for Arkansas drivers dropping building materials, running log loaders or handling scrap with a grapple.

  • Mobile Crane Operator

    Self-paced study for the NCCCO mobile crane Core and your LAT, TLL or TSS specialty, aimed at Arkansas operators on hydros, all-terrains and crawlers.

  • Rigger Level I

    Self-paced study for the NCCCO Rigger Level I written test, covering slings, hitches, hardware checks and signals for crew members who rig everyday picks with a known load weight.

  • Signalperson

    Study for the NCCCO Signalperson written test on any device, covering standard hand signals, voice and radio communication, crane behavior and the federal OSHA rules for directing a lift.

Neighboring areas

Start your Arkansas crane certification prep

Name the card you need (operator, rigger or signal person) and the part of Arkansas you work in. An enrollment advisor writes back with the matching course and what the exam steps look like from there.

  • Self-paced lessons that open on any device, day or night
  • Practice questions written in the style of NCCCO written tests
  • Crew enrollment for Arkansas contractors and plants

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