Arkansas

Geography

The Mississippi River forms most of Arkansas's eastern border, except in Clay and Greene counties where the St. Francis River forms the western boundary of the Missouri Bootheel, and in dozens of places where the current channel of the Mississippi has meandered from where it had last been legally specified. Arkansas shares its southern border with Louisiana, its northern border with Missouri, its eastern border with Tennessee and Mississippi, and its western border with Texas and Oklahoma.

Arkansas is a land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. The so-called Lowlands are better known by names of their two regions, the Delta and the Grand Prairie. The Arkansas Delta is a flat landscape of rich alluvial soils formed by repeated flooding of the adjacent Mississippi. Further away from the river, in the southeast portion of the state, the Grand Prairie consists of a more undulating landscape. Both are fertile agricultural areas.

The Delta region is bisected by an unusual geological formation known as Crowley's Ridge. A narrow band of rolling hills, Crowley's Ridge rises from 250 to 500 feet (150 m) above the surrounding alluvial plain and underlies many of the major towns of eastern Arkansas.

Northwest Arkansas is part of the Ozark Plateau including the Boston Mountains, to the south are the Ouachita Mountains and these regions are divided by the Arkansas River; the southern and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands. All of these mountains ranges are part of the U.S. Interior Highlands region, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. The highest point in the state is Mount Magazine in the Ozark Mountains; it rises to 2,753 feet (839 m) above sea level.

Arkansas is home to many caves, such as Blanchard Springs Caverns. It is also the first U.S. state in which diamonds were found (near Murfreesboro). Arkansas has the only operating diamond mine in the United States.

Arkansas is home to many areas protected by the National Park System. These include:

• Arkansas Post National Memorial at Gillett
• Buffalo National River
• Fort Smith National Historic Site
• Hot Springs National Park
• Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
• Pea Ridge National Military Park

The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail also runs through Arkansas.

Climate

Arkansas generally has a humid subtropical climate, which borders on humid continental in some northern highland areas. While not bordering the Gulf of Mexico, Arkansas is still close enough to this warm, large body of water for it to be the main weather influence in the state. Generally, Arkansas has very hot, humid summers and mild, slightly drier winters. In Little Rock, the daily high temperatures average around 90 °F (32 °C) in the summer and close to 50 °F (10 °C) in winter. Annual precipitation throughout the state averages between about 40 and 60 inches (1,000 to 1,500 mm); somewhat wetter in the south and drier in the northern part of the state. Snowfall is not uncommon, but certainly not excessive in most years as the average snowfall is around 5 inches (13 cm).

Despite its subtropical climate, Arkansas is known for occasional extreme weather. Between both the Great Plains and the Gulf States, Arkansas receives around 60 days of thunderstorms. As a part of Tornado Alley, tornadoes are not an uncommon occurrence in Arkansas, and a few of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history have struck the state. While being sufficiently away from the coast to be safe from a direct hit from a hurricane, Arkansas can often get the remnants of a tropical system which dumps tremendous amounts of rain in a short time and often spawns smaller tornadoes.

High water pouring down the White River caused historic flooding in cities along its path in eastern Arkansas. The river could top levels recorded in a devastating flood in 1982. Arkansas emergency management told early estimates for statewide damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure was at $2 million, though that figure was expected to grow.

History

The first European to reach Arkansas was the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto at the end of the 16th century. Arkansas is one of several U.S. states formed from the territory purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase. The early Spanish or French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling for the Illinois word for the Quapaw people, who lived downriver from them. Other Native American nations that lived in Arkansas prior to westward movement were the Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage nations. In their forced move westward (under U.S. Indian removal policies), the Five Civilized Tribes inhabited Arkansas during its territorial period.

The Territory of Arkansaw was organized on July 4, 1819, and on June 15, 1836, the State of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state and the 13th slave state. Planters settled in the Delta to cultivate cotton, and this was the area of the state where most enslaved African Americans were held. Other areas had more subsistence farmers and mixed farming.

Arkansas played a key role in aiding Texas in its war for independence with Mexico, sending troops and materials to Texas to help fight the war. The proximity of the city of Washington to the Texas border involved the town in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36. Some evidence suggests Sam Houston and his compatriots planned the revolt in a tavern at Washington in 1834. When the fighting began a stream of volunteers from Arkansas and the eastern states flowed through the town toward the Texas battle fields.

When the Mexican-American War began in 1846, Washington became a rendezvous for volunteer troops. Governor Thomas S. Drew issued a proclamation calling on the state to furnish one regiment of cavalry and one battalion of infantry to join the United States Army. Ten companies of men assembled here where they were formed into the first Regiment of Arkansas Cavalry.

The state developed a cotton culture in the east in lands of the Mississippi Delta. This was where enslaved labor was used most extensively, as planters brought with them or imported slaves from the Upper South. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, enslaved African Americans numbered 111,115 people, just over 25% of the state's population.

Arkansas refused to join the Confederate States of America until after United States President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to respond to the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, by Confederate forces. The State of Arkansas seceded from the Union on May 6, 1861. While not often cited in historical accounts, the state was the scene of numerous small-scale battles during the American Civil War. Arkansans of note during the Civil War included Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne. Considered by many to be one of the most brilliant Confederate division commanders of the war, Cleburne was often referred to as "The Stonewall of the West". Also of note was Major General Thomas C. Hindman. A former United States Representative, Hindman commanded Confederate forces at the Battle of Cane Hill and Battle of Prairie Grove.

Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress readmitted Arkansas in June 1868. Years later, as conservative Democrats began to regain political power, the state passed a new constitution in 1874. In 1874, the Brooks-Baxter War, a political struggle between factions of the Republican Party shook Little Rock and the state governorship. It was settled only when President Ulysses S. Grant ordered Joseph Brooks to disperse his militant supporters.

In 1881, the Arkansas state legislature enacted a bill that adopted an official pronunciation, to combat a controversy then raging around the proper pronunciation of the state's name. (See Law and Government below).

It was after Reconstruction when the state began to receive more immigrants and migrants. Some were originally recruited to work as farm labor in the developing Delta region. Some immigration continued into the early decades of the 20th century. For the first time the state welcomed numbers of Chinese, Italian, Syrian and immigrants from eastern Europe who made the Delta more diverse than the rest of the state. In addition, some black migrants moved into the area because of opportunities to develop the bottomlands and own their own property. The Chinese and Italians tried to move quickly out of farm labor. Many Chinese became such successful merchants in small towns that they were able to educate their children.

Construction of railroads enabled more farmers to get their products to market. It also brought new development into parts of the state, including the Ozarks. In a few years, for instance, Eureka Springs grew to 10,000 people, becoming a tourist destination and the fourth largest city of the state. It featured newly constructed, elegant resort hotels and spas planned around its springs. The town's attractions included horse racing and other entertainment, and it appealed to a variety of classes, becoming almost as popular as Hot Springs.

Struggling to stay in power when the worsening agricultural depression catalyzed Populist and third party movements, in the 1890s the Democrats in Arkansas followed other Southern states in passing legislation and constitutional amendments that acted to disfranchise blacks and poor whites. Democrats wanted to prevent their alliance. In 1891 state legislators passed a requirement for a literacy test, knowing that many blacks and whites would be excluded, at a time when more than 25% of the population could neither read nor write. In 1892 the state constitution was amended to include a poll tax and related residency requirements, which adversely affected poor people and forced them from electoral rolls. By 1900 the Democratic Party expanded use of the white primary in county and state elections, further denying blacks a part in the political process, as only in the primary was there any competition. The state was one-party for decades.

In 1905-1911, Arkansas began to receive a small migration of German, Slovak, and Irish immigrants. The German and Slovak peoples settled in the eastern part of the state known as the Prairie, and the Irish founded small communities in the southeast part of the state. The German and Slovaks who settled the areas were Roman Catholic families. The Irish were mostly Protestant from Ulster, northern Ireland.

After the case of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1954, the Little Rock Nine brought Arkansas to national attention when the Federal government intervened to protect African-American students trying to integrate a high school in the Arkansas capital. Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to aid segregationists in preventing nine African-American students from enrolling at Little Rock's Central High School. After attempting three times to contact Faubus, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, sent 1000 paratroops to escort and protect the African-American students as they entered school on September 25, 1957. In defiance of federal court orders to integrate, the governor and city of Little Rock decided to close the high schools for the remainder of the school year. By the fall of 1959, the Little Rock high schools were completely integrated.

Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was born in Hope, Arkansas. Before his presidency, Clinton served nearly twelve years as the 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas.

Maya Angelou, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Scott Joplin and Douglas MacArthur are all Arkansas natives.

Demographics

As of 2006, Arkansas has an estimated population of 2,810,872, which is an increase of 29,154, or 1.1%, from the prior year and an increase of 105,756, or 4.0%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 52,214 people (that is 198,800 births minus 146,586 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 57,611 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 21,947 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 35,664 people. It is estimated that about 48.8% is male, and 51.2% is female. From 2000 through 2006 Arkansas has had a population growth of 5.1% or 137,472. The population density of the state is 51.3 people per square mile.

The center of population of Arkansas is located in the far northeast corner of Perry County.

The five largest ancestry groups in the state are: American (15.9%), African American (15.7%), Irish (9.5%), German (9.3%) and English (7.9%).

People of European ancestry have a strong presence in the northwestern Ozarks and the central part of the state. African Americans live mainly in the fertile southern and eastern parts of the state. Arkansans of Irish, English and German ancestry are mostly found in the far northwestern Ozarks near the Missouri border. Ancestors of Irish in the Ozarks were chiefly Scots-Irish, Protestants from Northern Ireland and the Scottish lowlands, part of the largest group of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland before the American Revolution. Scots-Irish settled throughout the backcountry of the South and in the more mountainous areas.

As of 2000, 95.07% of Arkansas residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 3.31% speak Spanish. German is the third most spoken language at 0.299%, followed by French at 0.291% and Vietnamese at 0.13%.

In 2006, Arkansas has a larger percentage of tobacco smokers than the national average, with 24% of adults smoking.

Religion

Arkansas, like most other Southern states, is part of the Bible Belt and is predominantly Protestant. The religious affiliations of the people are as follows:

• Christian – 86%
  • Protestant – 78%
    • Baptist – 39%
    • Methodist – 9%
    • Pentecostal – 6%
    • Church of Christ – 6%
    • Assemblies of God – 3%
    • Other Protestant – 15%
  • Roman Catholic – 7%
  • Orthodox Christian – <1%
  • Mormon/LDS – <.5%
  • Other Christian – <1%
• Other Religions – <1%
• Non-Religious – 14%

Economy

The state's gross domestic product for 2005 was $87 billion. Its per capita household median income (in current dollars) for 2004 was $35,295, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state's agriculture outputs are poultry and eggs, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, cotton, rice, hogs, and milk. Its industrial outputs are food processing, electric equipment, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper products, bromine, and vanadium.

Several global companies are headquartered in the northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007[25]), J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result.

In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states. Additionally, the city of Conway is the site of a school bus factory.

Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day.

According to Forbes.com Arkansas currently ranks 21st for The Best States for Business, 9th for Business Cost, 40th for Labor, 22nd for Regulatory Environment, 17th for Economic Climate, 9th for Growth Prospects, 34th in Gross Domestic Product, and positive economic change of 3.8% or ranked 22nd.

Taxation

Arkansas imposes a state income tax with six brackets, ranging from 1.0% to 7.0%. The first $9,000 of military pay of enlisted personnel is exempt from Arkansas tax; officers do not have to pay state income tax on the first $6,000 of their military pay. Retirees pay no tax on Social Security, or on the first $6,000 in gain on their pensions (in addition to recovery of cost basis). Residents of Texarkana, Arkansas are exempt from Arkansas income tax; wages and business income earned there by residents of Texarkana, Texas are also exempt. Arkansas's gross receipts (sales) tax and compensating (use) tax rate is currently 6%. The state has also mandated that various services be subject to sales tax collection. They include wrecker and towing services; dry cleaning and laundry; body piercing, tattooing and electrolysis; pest control; security and alarm monitoring; self-storage facilities; boat storage and docking; and pet grooming and kennel services.

In addition to the state sales tax, there are more than 300 local taxes in Arkansas. Cities and counties have the authority to enact additional local sales and use taxes if they are passed by the voters in their area. These local taxes have a ceiling or cap; they cannot exceed $25 for each 1% of tax assessed. These additional taxes are collected by the state, which distributes the money back to the local jurisdictions monthly. Low-income taxpayers with a total annual household income of less than $12,000 are permitted a sales tax exemption for electricity usage.

Sales of alcoholic beverages account for added taxes. A 10% supplemental mixed drink tax is imposed on the sale of alcoholic beverages (excluding beer) at restaurants. A 4% tax is due on the sale of all mixed drinks (except beer and wine) sold for "on-premises" consumption. And a 3% tax is due on beer sold for off-premises consumption.

Property taxes are assessed on real and personal property; only 20% of the value is used as the tax base.

Transportation

Highways

Airports

Little Rock National Airport (Adams Field) and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill in Benton County are Arkansas's main air terminals. Passenger service is also available at Fort Smith, as well as limited service at Texarkana, Pine Bluff, Harrison, Ozark Regional Airport Mountain Home, Hot Springs, El Dorado and Jonesboro. Many air travelers in eastern Arkansas use Memphis International Airport.

Rail

Amtrak's Texas Eagle makes several stops in Arkansas daily on its run from Chicago to San Antonio and Los Angeles.

Law and government

The current Governor of Arkansas is Mike Beebe, a Democrat. He was elected on November 7, 2006.

Both of Arkansas's U.S. Senators are Democrats: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. The state has four seats in U.S. House of Representatives. Three seats are held by Democrats—Marion Berry (map), Vic Snyder (map), and Mike Ross (map). The state's lone Republican congressman is John Boozman (map).

The Democratic Party holds super-majority status in the Arkansas General Assembly. A majority of local and statewide offices are also held by Democrats. This is rare in the modern South, where a majority of statewide offices are held by Republicans. Arkansas had the distinction in 1992 of being the only state in the country to give the majority of its vote to a single candidate in the presidential election—native son Bill Clinton—while every other state's electoral votes were won by pluralities of the vote among the three candidates. In 2004, George W. Bush won the state of Arkansas by 9 points, leading some to speculate that the state was shifting toward the Republicans. In 2006, however, Democrats were elected to all statewide offices by the voters in a Democratic sweep that included the Arkansas Democratic Party regaining the governorship.

Most Republican strength lies mainly in northwest Arkansas in the areas around Fort Smith and Bentonville, and especially in North Central Arkansas around the Mountain Home area where voters have often voted 90 percent Republican. The rest of the state is strongly Democratic, especially Little Rock and the areas along the Mississippi River. Arkansas has only elected one Republican to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, Tim Hutchinson, who was defeated after one term by Mark Pryor. The General Assembly has not been controlled by the Republican Party since Reconstruction and is the fourth most heavily Democratic Legislature in the country, after Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Connecticut. Arkansas is also the only state among the states of the former Confederacy that sends two Democrats to the U.S. Senate and the overwhelming majority of registered voters in the state are Democrats.

However, the Democratic Party of Arkansas is more conservative than the national entity. Two of Arkansas' three Democratic Representatives are members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which tends to be more pro-business, pro-military, and socially conservative than the center-left Democratic mainstream. The state is socially conservative – its voters passed a ban on gay marriage with 74% voting yes, the Arkansas Constitution protects right to work, and the state is one of a handful that has legislation on its books banning abortion in the event Roe vs. Wade is ever overturned.

In Arkansas, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor and thus can be from a different political party.

Each officer's term is four years long. Office holders are term-limited to two full terms plus any partial terms prior to the first full term. Arkansas gubernatorial terms became four years with the 1986 general election; before this, the terms were two years long.

Some of Arkansas's counties have two county seats, as opposed to the usual one seat. The arrangement dates back to when travel was extremely difficult in the state. The seats are usually on opposite sides of the county. Though travel is no longer the difficulty it once was, there are few efforts to eliminate the two seat arrangement where it exists, since the county seat is a source of pride (and jobs) to the city involved.

Arkansas is the only state to specify the pronunciation of its name by law (AR-kan-saw). This is in response to residents of Kansas who used to pronounce the state's name as ar-KANSAS.

Article 19 (Miscellaneous Provisions), Item 1 in the Arkansas Constitution is entitled "Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness," and states that "No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court," despite unanimous decision by the United States Supreme Court in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) that a similar requirement in Maryland violated protections under First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

Metropolitan areas

The Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area had 841,326 people in the 2007 census estimates and is the largest in Arkansas.

The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan area is increasingly important to the state and its economy. The US Census estimated the population of the MSA to be 435,714 in 2007, up from 347,045 in 2000, making it one of the fastest growing in the nation.

See also Arkansas Metropolitan Areas.

Largest Cities Above 10,000 as of 2007

Rank City 2007 Pop. Region Prev.Rk.

1. Little Rock 184,500 Central 1

2. Fort Smith 83,461 Northwest 2

3. Fayetteville 68,726 Northwest 4

4. Springdale 63,082 Northwest 7

5. Jonesboro 60,489 Northeast 5

6. North Little Rock 58,896 Central 3

7. Conway 55,334 Central 8

8. Rogers 52,187 Northwest 9

9. Pine Bluff 51,758 Southeast 6

10.Hot Springs 38,468 Southwest 10

11.Bentonville 32,049 Northwest 12

12.Jacksonville 30,506 Central 11

13.Texarkana 30,006 Southwest 13

14.West Memphis 28,092 Northeast 12

15.Benton 27,717 Central 16

16.Russellville 26,014 Northwest 14

17.Paragould 24,248 Northeast 15

18.Bella Vista 24,000 Northwest 23

19.Sherwood 23,422 Central 18

20.Cabot 22,186 Central 24

21.Van Buren 21,818 Northwest 23

22.Searcy 20,993 Central 21

23.El Dorado 20,351 Southeast 17

24.Blytheville 16,403 Northeast 22

25.Maumelle 15,115 Central 34

26.Siloam Springs 14,141 Northwest 31

27.Forest City 13,831 Northeast 26

28.Bryant 13,613 Central NR

29.Helena-West Helena 12,997 Southeast NR*

30.Harrison 12,986 Northwest 28

31.Mountain Home 12,215 Northeast 29

32.Camden 11,956 Southeast 27

33.Magnolia 11,766 Southwest 32

34.Arkadelphia 10,848 Southwest 30

35.Hope 10,475 Southwest 33

36.Marion 10,419 Northeast NR

• Bryant and Marion did not have 10,000 people or over in their city limits in 2000

• Helena-West Helena's population is a combined population due to their 2006 recent merger

Population Gainers

1.Springdale

2.Rogers

3.Bentonville

4.Conway

5.Bella Vista

6.Cabot

7.Benton

8.Maumelle

9.Jonesboro

10.Texarkana

11.Bryant

12.Fort Smith

13.Siloam Springs

14.Van Buren

15.Hot Springs

16.Russellville

17.Marion

18.Paragould

19.Searcy

20.Sherwood

21.Little Rock

22.Mountain Home

23.Magnolia

24.Harrison

25.Jacksonville

Population Losers

1.Pine Bluff

2.Helena-West Helena

3.North Little Rock

4.Blytheville

5.Camden

6.El Dorado

7.Forrest City

8.Arkadelphia

9.Hope

Important cities and towns

Names in bold have populations greater than 20,000.

• Alma
• Arkadelphia
• Batesville
• Bella Vista
• Benton
• Bentonville
• Blytheville
• Booneville
• Bryant
• Cabot
• Camden
• Conway
• El Dorado
• Eureka Springs
• Fayetteville
• Forrest City
• Fort Smith
• Harrison
• Helena-West Helena
• Hope
• Hot Springs
• Jacksonville
• Jonesboro
• Lake Village
• Little Rock
• Lonoke
• Magnolia
• Malvern
• Marion
• Marked Tree
• Maumelle
• Monticello
• Morrilton
• Mountain Home
• Mountain View
• Natural Steps
• Newport
• North Little Rock
• Osceola
• Paragould
• Pine Bluff
• Pleasant Hill
• Pocahontas
• Rogers
• Russellville
• Searcy
• Sherwood
• Siloam Springs
• Springdale
• Stuttgart
• Texarkana
• Van Buren
• Walnut Ridge
• Warren
• West Memphis
• Wynne

Education

Public school districts

• List of school districts in Arkansas

Centers of research

• National Center for Toxicological Research

Colleges and universities

• Arkansas Baptist College
• Arkansas State University System
  • Arkansas State University - Jonesboro
  • Arkansas State University - Mountain Home
• Arkansas Tech University
• Central Baptist College
• Harding University
• Henderson State University
• Hendrix College
• John Brown University
• Lyon College
• Ouachita Baptist University
• Ozarka College
• Philander Smith College
• Southern Arkansas University
• University of Arkansas System
  • University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
  • University of Arkansas at Fort Smith
  • University of Arkansas at Little Rock
  • University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  • University of Arkansas at Monticello
  • University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
• University of Central Arkansas
• University of the Ozarks
• Williams Baptist College

Famous Arkansans

Daisy Bates, Dee Brown, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Hattie Caraway, Wesley Clark, Bill Clinton, "Dizzy" Dean, Orval Faubus, James W. Fulbright, John Grisham, Amy Lee Hartzler, John H. Johnson, Douglas MacArthur, John L. McClellan, James S. McDonnell, Scottie Pippen, Dick Powell, Brooks Robinson, Billy Bob Thornton, Winthrop Rockefeller, Mary Steenburgen, Edward Durell Stone, Sam Walton and Archibald Yell (World Almanac & Book of Facts, Reader's Digest Publishing, 2008)