Arkansas article by Orland Maxfield

{ahr'-kuhn-saw}
Arkansas, one of the Southern states of the United States, is bordered by Missouri on 
the north and northeast, by Tennessee and Mississippi on the east, by Louisiana on 
the south, and by Texas and Oklahoma on the west. The region of Arkansas was first 
visited by Europeans in 1541-42, when Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer, led a 
party through the area. The region was acquired by the United States in 1803 as part 
of the Louisiana Purchase, and Arkansas became the 25th U.S. state in 1836. 
Long an agricultural region, the state industrialized rapidly after 1940. Today, 
various service industries account for about two-thirds of the gross state product. 
The name Arkansas is derived from a Quapaw Indian word meaning "downstream people"; 
the name was formerly also spelled Arkansa and Arkansaw.

LAND AND RESOURCES
Arkansas encompasses a picturesque region, with much forestland and several major
rivers. The highest point is Magazine Mountain (839 m/2,753 ft high), in the 
western part of the state, and the lowest point, along the Ouachita River 
in the south, has an elevation of 17 m (55 ft); the approximate mean elevation is 
198 m (650 ft). About 7% of the state's land area is owned by the federal government.
Physiographic Regions
Arkansas comprises two major regions of roughly equal size--the Interior Highlands of
much of the west and north and the Lowlands of the south and east.
The Interior Highlands comprise the Ozark Plateau (see Ozark Mountains) in the north 
and the Ouachita Mountains. Both areas extend into neighboring states. The Ozarks, 
ranging in elevation in Arkansas from 150 to 786 m (492 to 2,579 ft), comprise mainly 
the Springfield and Salem plateaus, in the north, and the Boston Mountains, in the 
south. The plateaus are gently rolling, except where swift-flowing streams have cut 
deep valleys. Much of this area is forested and also has good farmland, especially on 
the Springfield Plateau. The wooded Boston Mountains generally have steep slopes and 
are interlaced by numerous river gorges.
The Ouachita Mountains comprise a series of parallel east-west valleys and ridges,
composed of strongly folded and faulted sedimentary rocks. Included in the Ouachitas 
is the Arkansas Valley, through which runs the Arkansas River. Although generally 
less elevated than the rest of the region, the valley contains several lofty points, 
including Magazine Mountain, which is the highest point in the state, and Petit Jean 
Mountain. The Ouachita Mountains region as a whole contains many mineral springs, 
such as those found at Hot Springs in Garland County.
The Lowlands region is composed of the West Gulf Coastal Plain, in the south, and the
Mississippi Alluvial Plain, in the east; the terrain is mostly level and from 30 to 
90 m (98 to 295 ft) in elevation. The coastal plain has extensive pine forests and 
important deposits of bauxite, petroleum, and natural gas; the soil is generally sandy. 
The alluvial plain, adjacent to the Mississippi River, has a deep fill of 
unconsolidated river-deposited sediments, sometimes with a shallow hardpan that 
permits irrigated rice farming. Crowleys Ridge, a narrow north-south band of hills 
covered with loess, is in the center of the alluvial plain.
Rivers and Lakes
Arkansas contains several major rivers. The Mississippi River forms most of the 
state's eastern boundary, and the Arkansas River flows diagonally across the state 
from the Oklahoma southeast. Other rivers include the White River, which traverses 
much of northern and eastern Arkansas before entering the Mississippi; the Ouachita 
River, which rises in western Arkansas and flows south into Louisiana; and the Red 
River, which forms part of the boundary with Texas. All of Arkansas lies within the 
Mississippi River drainage basin.
Arkansas has few big natural lakes; the largest is Lake Chicot, in the southeast, an 
oxbow lake near the Mississippi River. The state has several major artificial lakes, 
created by dams on rivers: Lakes Ouachita, Hamilton, and Catherine, on the Ouachita 
River; Millwood Lake, on the Little River; Nimrod Lake, on the Fourche La Fave River; 
Ozark Reservoir and Dardanelle Lake, on the Arkansas River; Greers Ferry Lake, on the 
Little Red River; Beaver and Bull Shoals lakes, on the White River; and Norfolk Lake, 
on Bryant Creek.
Climate
The climate of Arkansas is mild, with warm to hot summers and cool winters. Annual
precipitation averages from 1,016 to 1,524 mm (40 to 60 in) and comes mostly during
winter and spring. December and January are usually the wettest months in the south, 
and March through May is the wet period in the north. The Interior Highlands are 
somewhat cooler than the Lowlands and receive small amounts of snow in the winter. 
Tornadoes occur in the warm seasons, especially in the extreme northwest and in the 
low-lying southeast. Little Rock, in the center of the state, has a mean January 
temperature of 4 deg C (40 deg F) and a mean July temperature of 27 deg C (81 deg F); 
it receives 1,232 mm (48.5 in) of precipitation per year. The growing season ranges 
from about 175 days, in the highlands, to about 240 days, in the lowlands.
Vegetation and Animal Life
About 68,745 sq km (26,543 sq mi) of Arkansas, or about 50% of the state's land 
area, is covered with forestland, most of which is privately owned. The state has 
three national forests. Approximately two-thirds of the forests comprise
hardwoods, such as oak, white ash, cypress, elm, and hickory; these are located 
mainly in the Interior Highlands and in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The West 
Gulf Coastal Plain contains softwood forests, chiefly composed of loblolly pine and 
shortleaf pine. Tulip trees grow on Crowleys Ridge. The state has many kinds of 
wildflowers, including American bellflowers, yellow jasmines, orchids, water lilies, 
and hydrangea. The plentiful animal life includes whitetail deer, red foxes, 
rabbits, squirrels, bobcats, weasels, and muskrat. Among the numerous game birds are 
ducks, geese, pheasant, woodcocks, and quail. Rivers and lakes are well stocked with 
fish, such as bass, perch, catfish, bream, and sturgeon.
Mineral Resources
Arkansas has several valuable mineral deposits. Bauxite is found in great quantity 
near Little Rock, and deposits of petroleum, natural gas, and bromine are located in 
the West Gulf Coastal Plain. The Arkansas River Valley has coal and natural-gas 
deposits. Manganese deposits are found in the northeast but are not mined. There are 
deposits of diamonds near Murfreesboro, but nearly all the diamonds were recovered 
during 1908-25 and the area is now a state park; individuals can search for diamonds 
and occasionally find them near the surface. The state's other mineral resources 
include stone, sand and gravel, lime, clay, barite, and gypsum.

PEOPLE
The 1990 resident census of Arkansas is 2,350,725. During the census period 1980-90 
the population of Arkansas increased by about 3%, considerably below the national 
growth rate of about 10% and far below the nearly 20% state growth rate of the 
previous decade (1970-80). The proportion of urban population has steadily increased 
since the 1940s. The largest communities in Arkansas are Little Rock (the capital), 
Fort Smith, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Jonesboro, Fayetteville, Hot Springs, 
Springdale, Jacksonville, West Memphis, and Conway. In 1990 about 83% of the state's 
inhabitants were white, and about 16% were black; approximately 13,000 were Indians. 
The fastest-growing ethnic group was Asian. Nearly all Arkansans are U.S.-born.
In religion, a substantial majority of Arkansans were Protestant, mainly Baptist and
Methodist. A sizable number of inhabitants were Roman Catholics, and a much smaller
number Jewish.
Education
The first school established in Arkansas was the Dwight Mission (opened in 1822 near
modern Russellville), whose initial students were Cherokee Indians. In 1843 the state
legislature provided for a statewide system of public schools, but private academies
dominated education until the 1870s.
Among the institutions of higher education in the state are Arkansas Tech University 
(1909), at Russellville; Arkansas State University (1909), at State University; 
Harding University (1924), at Searcy; Henderson State University (1890) and Ouachita 
Baptist University (1886), both at Arkadelphia; Southern Arkansas University (1909), 
at Magnolia; the University of Arkansas (1871), at Fayetteville; the University of 
Arkansas at Little Rock (1927); the University of Arkansas at Monticello (1909); the 
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (1873); the University of Central Arkansas 
(1907), at Conway; and Westark Community College (1928), at Fort Smith. (See Arkansas, 
state universities of.)
Cultural Institutions
The leading libraries in Arkansas are at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville 
and at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The Arkansas Library Commission 
maintains about 35 regional public libraries. Notable museums in the state include 
the Arkansas Arts Center, the Old State House history museum and the Museum of 
Science and History (housed in the building where Gen. Douglas MacArthur was 
born), all in Little Rock; the University of Arkansas museum, with displays on the 
state's history, in Fayetteville; a noted museum of firearms, in Berryville; 
and a museum of Indian artifacts, near Wilson. Little Rock supports various musical 
groups, including a symphony orchestra.
Historical Sites
Among the places of historical interest in Arkansas are Arkansas Post National 
Memorial, including the site of the first permanent white settlement (founded 1686) in 
the lower Mississippi Valley; Fort Smith National Historic Site, encompassing one of 
the first U.S. military posts in the Louisiana Territory; Pea Ridge National Military 
Park, taking in the battlefield where Union forces scored an important victory (Mar. 
7-8, 1862) during the Civil War; and the capitol, in Little Rock, of the old 
Arkansaw Territory.
Communications
The residents of Arkansas are well served by numerous radio stations (the first one 
began operation in Pine Bluff in 1920); commercial television broadcasting is augmented 
by cable systems. Among the more influential daily newspapers are the Fort Smith 
Southwest Times Record; the Hot Springs National Park Sentinel-Record; the Jonesboro 
Sun; the Little Rock Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; the Pine Bluff Commercial; and the 
Texarkana Gazette. The state's first newspaper was the Arkansas Gazette, initially 
published in 1819 at Arkansas Post and moved in 1821 to Little Rock. The 
oldest U. S. newspaper published west of the Mississippi River, the newspaper merged 
in 1991 with the Arkansas Democrat to form the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

ECONOMY
The economy of Arkansas was overwhelmingly agricultural until the middle of the 20th
century when industrial plants began to be established in large numbers.
Agriculture
Although farm income has diminished proportionately as income from services and
industry has increased, the value of farm output in Arkansas nonetheless totals 
several billion dollars annually. Leading as the most valuable crops are soybeans, rice, 
cotton, and hay; other important crops include wheat, oats, sorghum grain, 
spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, apples, and peaches. Arkansas leads the 
nation in the production of broilers (young chickens) and is a leading producer of 
chickens, chicken eggs, and turkeys. The state also has a sizable dairy industry 
and produces large numbers of beef cattle and hogs. The principal cropland 
is located in eastern Arkansas, where most of the cotton, rice, and soybeans 
are grown; livestock farms are situated mainly in the north and northwest.
Forestry and Fishing
Arkansas has a substantial forest-products industry. The commercially valuable softwood
is used for pulp and plywood; much hardwood is also cut.
Arkansas has a small but significant fishing industry--perhaps unexpected for an inland
state. Millions of pounds of fish are caught by commercial concerns in the Mississippi 
and its tributaries. The chief species landed are catfish, buffalo fish, carp, gizzard 
shad, paddlefish, sheepshead, and garfish. Fish also are raised commercially in some 
unused rice fields that have been flooded.
Mining
Arkansas has an important mining sector. The most valuable mineral recovered is
petroleum; the chief petroleum production sites in Arkansas are in Union and Columbia
counties in the south, bordering Louisiana. Other valuable minerals include bromine,
natural gas, and stone. Arkansas is the leading U.S. state in the production of bromine 
as well as bauxite and vanadium; it also was a leading source of barite. Other minerals
produced in significant quantities included coal, clay, lime, and sand and gravel.
Manufacturing
The leading branch of the economy of Arkansas is manufacturing. The chief products are
processed food (mainly dressed beef and poultry, canned fruits and vegetables, and dairy
products), electrical equipment (notably household appliances and motors), and forest
products (especially lumber, paper, and paper goods). Other manufactures include refined
petroleum, clothing, printed materials, and metals. Arkansas, with its abundant water,
power, and mineral resources, has been developing chemical-processing industries. The
chief industrial centers are Little Rock-North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, and Fort Smith.
Tourism
Arkansas has a large tourist industry, and each year about 15 million persons visit the
state. Notable attractions include Hot Springs National Park, with 47 hot springs used by
people seeking relief from illness or injury; Buffalo National River, an unpolluted stream
that flows past multicolored bluffs and many caves and springs; and a variety of state 
parks and recreation areas. Arkansas' many lakes, rivers, and streams and wilderness areas
attract sizable numbers of out-of-state sport fishermen and hunters.
Transportation
Road, water, and air transport are the chief means of carrying persons and freight in
Arkansas. Although railroad mileage has diminished since early in the 20th century, a
number of cities have rail freight service. Among the major navigable waterways are the
Arkansas River (navigable from its mouth to Catoosa, Oklahoma, the port for Tulsa) and the 
Ouachita and White rivers. Major airlines serve the state's largest cities; other centers 
are connected for feeder lines.
Energy
Despite its large and varied energy resources (natural gas, petroleum, coal, water),
Arkansas lagged in developing them; very few Arkansas farms had electricity in the 1930s.
Today, most of the electricity is produced in thermal plants using refined petroleum. The
state has several hydroelectric facilities, notably on the White and Little Red rivers, 
and a nuclear-power plant at Russellville.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Arkansas is governed under a constitution of 1874, as amended; previous charters had
been adopted in 1836, 1861, 1864, and 1868. The chief executive of the state is a 
governor, elected to a 4-year term (raised from 2 years by voter approval in 1984). The 
state's bicameral legislature, called the General Assembly, comprises a 35-member Senate 
and 100-member House of Representatives; senators are elected to 4-year terms, and
representatives are elected to 2-year terms. The highest tribunal in Arkansas is the
supreme court, composed of a chief justice and six associate justices, all elected to 
8-year terms. The state also has circuit courts, chancery courts, county courts, and 
municipal courts. Arkansas is divided into 75 counties, each of which is administered by 
an elected county judge. Each county judge presides over a quorum court, a legislative 
body whose chief function is to draw up and approve the county budget.
The Democratic party dominates state and local government in Arkansas; Republicans
have served as governor only in 1868-74 (during the era of Reconstruction), 1967-71 (when 
Winthrop Rockefeller held the office) and 1981-83 (when Frank D. White served one term).
In presidential elections, the Democratic nominee carried Arkansas in all elections
between 1872 and 1968; since then the record has been mixed, but the state voted
Republican in 1980, 1984, and 1988. In 1992, the state voted for favorite son and Democrat 
Bill Clinton as the winner in the presidential election.

HISTORY
Among the earliest inhabitants of present-day Arkansas were the Bluff Dweller Indians,
who probably lived in the northwestern part of the state before 1000 BC. About 2,000 years 
later, Indians known as Mound Builders settled along the Mississippi River in Arkansas.
When the first Europeans arrived, in the mid-16th century, the Siouan-speaking Quapaw
lived near the mouth of the Arkansas River, and the Osage lived to the north of the river; 
the Caddo Indians, an agricultural people, who constructed distinctive beehive-shaped
dwellings, lived in the southwest.
European Exploration and Early Settlement
The first Europeans to enter Arkansas were members of a party led by the Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto; they traversed the central and southern parts of the state in 1541-42. 
In 1673 a group under Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet traveled down the Mississippi as
far as the Arkansas River. In 1682 a party headed by Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle,
journeyed down the Mississippi to its mouth. La Salle claimed the Mississippi Valley,
including modern Arkansas, for Louis XIV of France and called it Louisiana. One of La
Salle's aides, Henri de Tonty, established (1686) Aux Ares, the first permanent white
settlement in Arkansas, near the mouth of the Arkansas River; the community later became
known as Arkansas Post. In 1719-20 a colony of Germans was established nearby as part
of the abortive French Mississippi Scheme. In 1762 France ceded Arkansas and its other
possessions west of the Mississippi to Spain. The Spanish encouraged white settlement
in the region, but when they returned the area to France in 1800, fewer than 1,000 persons
lived in Arkansas. In 1803 the United States acquired Arkansas as part of the Louisiana
Purchase.
U.S. Territory and Statehood
Arkansas was part of the Louisiana District (1804-05), the Louisiana Territory (1805-12),
and the Missouri Territory (1812-19) before being constituted, in 1819, as the Arkansaw
Territory, which also included part of present-day Oklahoma. Arkansas Post was the capital 
from 1819 to 1821, when Little Rock was made the capital. Settlement of Arkansas was slow 
until the later 1820s, when the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians (who had become
embroiled in disputes with whites after being moved to Arkansas by the federal
government) were removed from the territory. By 1835 Arkansas had 50,000 white
inhabitants, and on June 15, 1836, it entered the Union as the 25th state. Black slaves
supplied most of the labor for the productive cotton plantations of eastern and southern
Arkansas; in 1860 Arkansas had about 111,000 black inhabitants, who constituted more
than one-quarter of the total population.

The Civil War and Reconstruction
On the eve of the Civil War, Arkansas was almost equally divided between secessionists
(mainly associated with cotton production) and antisecessionists (largely small farmers of
the northwestern part of the state). In March 1861, a state convention voted against 
leaving the Union, but in May 1861, a month after the Civil War had begun, the convention 
voted for secession and Arkansas joined the Confederate States of America. In March 1862, 
Union troops won a bloody battle at Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), and by early 1864 
Confederate forces were confined to southern Arkansas, where they made the town of 
Washington the new state capital. A Union regime administered most of Arkansas from Little 
Rock.
The war ended in 1865, but during 1866-67 former secessionists controlled the state
legislature and passed several measures restricting the rights of the recently emancipated
blacks. As a result, Arkansas was placed under federal military rule in 1867. The state was
readmitted to the Union in mid-1868, after a new constitution had been ratified. During
1868-74 Republicans controlled the state government; the period was marked by a violent
clash over the outcome of the 1872 election for governor. Two Republicans, Elisha Baxter
and Joseph Brooks, claimed victory in the close contest, and partisans of the candidates
engaged in gun battles in 1874 until President Ulysses S. Grant intervened to help restore
order; Baxter was declared governor. In elections later in 1874 the Democrats regained
control of the state government.
Economic Hardships and Recovery
During the late 19th century agriculture (especially cotton cultivation) and business
expanded, fostered in part by large-scale railroad construction. Because of low prices and
crop failures, farmers faced hard times in the 1880s, however, and, organized in such
groups as the Agricultural Wheel, dissatisfied farmers almost gained the governorship in
the 1888 election. In the 1890s several laws were adopted that severely restricted the civil
rights of blacks in Arkansas. In 1901-07, under Gov. Jeff Davis, a charismatic, 
Populist-style politician, the state's educational and penal systems were reformed and most 
of its debt was retired.
In 1921 petroleum was discovered near El Dorado, but Arkansas remained overwhelmingly
agricultural until manufacturing enterprises began to be established in sizable numbers
during the 1940s. Farmers suffered from low cotton prices in the 1920s, a situation
compounded by destructive flooding by the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers in 1927 and by a 
severe drought that began in 1930. The Depression of the 1930s created widespread
unemployment and hardship in the state, and many "Arkies" headed west in search of
better living conditions. Recovery in the state began during World War II when new
industries (such as bauxite processing) were started and several military bases were
established. During the war, J. William Fulbright first gained national prominence as a
representative of Arkansas in the U.S. Congress. 
Civil Rights and Recent Trends
In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregating black and white pupils in separate
public schools was unconstitutional. Arkansas resisted implementing the ruling, and in
September 1957 the state received national attention when Gov. Orval E. Faubus (in office
1955-67) tried to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower quickly intervened, in part by sending federal troops to Little Rock,
and several black students were enrolled at the high school. Resistance by whites to
school integration continued into the 1960s and '70s, but by the late 1970s blacks had
equal access to virtually all public educational institutions in the state.
From 1940 to 1960 the population of Arkansas declined by more than 8%, because many
persons, particularly blacks, left the state for better employment opportunities elsewhere. 
In the 1960s the state's population began to increase, and the trend has continued. Despite
efforts during the 1980s centered on education, economic development, and fiscal
modernization, Arkansas remains one of the poorest states. Its five-term Democratic
governor, Bill Clinton, was elected the U. S. president in 1992.
O. Orland Maxfield
Bibliography: Ashmore, Harry S., Arkansas: A History (1978; repr. 1984); Bennett, S., and 
Worthen, W. B., eds., Arkansas Made, 2 vols. (1990-91); Blair, D. P., Arkansas Politics and 
Government (1988); Bolton, S. Charles, Territorial Ambition (1993); Browne, Turner, The Last 
River: Life Along Arkansas's Lower White (1993); Donovan, Timothy P., and Gatewood,
Willard P., Jr., The Governors of Arkansas (1981; repr. 1988); Graff, Thomas, et al.,
Arkansas: A Geography (1985); Niswonger, R. L., Arkansas Democratic Politics, 1896-1920 
(1990); Tucker, D. M., Arkansas (1986); Williams, C. F., Arkansas (1986).
(c) 1996 Grolier, Inc.