| State of Arkansas | |
| Coordinates | 34°48’N, 92°12’WL |
| General | |
| Surface | 137,732 km² (2.1% water) |
| Inhabitants | 3,066,369 (21.8 inhabitant/km²) |
| Capital city | Little Rock |
| Politics | |
| Governor | Asa Hutchinson (R) |
| Other | |
| Time zone | Central Standard Time (UTC−6) |
| Joined | June 15, 1836 |
| Nickname | The Natural State |
| ISO 3166-2 | US-AR |
| Website | arkansas.gov |
Arkansas is one of the states of the United States. The standard abbreviation for the Natural State, or The Land of Opportunity as its nicknames go, is AR. The capital is Little Rock. Arkansas is bordered by Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, Oklahoma to the west, Missouri to the north, and Tennessee and Mississippi to the east.
Origin of the name
The area now called Arkansas was originally settled by Native American tribes such as the Quapaw. The state’s name presumably refers to them, via French, and would mean something like “downstream”. Arkansas is the only state whose pronunciation of the name is legally established (in 1881): “ár-ken-saw” pronounced in English . So the S at the end of Arkansas is not pronounced.
History
The region was long in the hands of the French. It was Spanish property for several decades at the end of the 18th century . France eventually sold it to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
According to JIBIN123.COM, Arkansas Territory was established in 1819, which also covered most of the later state of Oklahoma, with Arkansas Post as its first capital. In 1821 the capital became Little Rock. Arkansas formally became a state of the United States on June 15, 1836, as the 25th. The question of whether slavery would be allowed in the state was a difficult issue as the population was strongly divided on this. Ultimately, the vote of Henry Clay, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, would be decisive. During the American Civil War, the state sided with the Confederation. Due to its strategic location along the Mississippi, a number of battles were fought in the state. In 1863, 17-year-old David Owen Dodd was apprehended by Union soldiers. He was found to be carrying a book of Morse codes showing the positions of Union soldiers around Little Rock. He refused to say how he got the book and this was never made clear. He was hanged a few weeks later. He would go down in history as The Boy Martyr of Arkansas.
During Prohibition, the city of Hot Springs became a place where the authorities tolerated drinking, prostitution, gambling and horse racing and where mobsters from Chicago, among others, came to relax.
The conservative peasant state led the way in the United States in 1932, when it was the first to elect a woman to the federal Senate. Hattie Caraway had already been nominated in 1931 to finish her late husband’s term, but in 1932 and 1938 she was elected to the Democratic Party herself. In 1934, like all Southern senators, she voted against a law against lynching, but in 1943 she supported a (failed) initiative for an Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. In 1944, she lost in the primaries to J. William Fulbright, who would hold the seat for the next thirty years.
The tension over racial segregation in the US erupted in Arkansas in 1957. The southern states had to ban racial segregation in education. In the capital Little Rock, a white high school decided to admit black students. When the first nine went to school after the summer holidays, angry whites took to the streets. These students would go down in history as the Nine of Little Rock. The governor of Arkansas refused to protect the black students. That’s why President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops. Throughout the school year, these students went to school under military supervision. It would be years before racial segregation in Southern schools ended.
Geography
The state of Arkansas covers 137,732 km², of which 134,856 km² is land. It belongs to the Central time zone. It is bordered to the north by the state of Missouri, to the west by Oklahoma and Texas, to the east by Tennessee and Mississippi, and to the south by Louisiana.
The major rivers are the Mississippi, which defines the entire eastern border, and the Arkansas in it.
The northwest of the state is slightly mountainous with Magazine Mountain (839 m) highest point in the Ozark Mountains. To the west, along the border with Oklahoma, lie the Ouachita Mountains. Southern and eastern Arkansas consists of lowlands.
In Arkansas we also find the Blanchard Springs caves.
Climate
Arkansas, which is counted among the southern states, has a subtropical climate with warm summers and cold winters. Up to 25 cm of snow can fall in the highlands, while in the southeastern lowlands no more than about 5 cm falls per year. The weather in Arkansas has several extremes with tornadoes, thunderstorms, hailstorms, and snowfall. There are about 60 days of thunderstorms per year. Although it is far enough from the Gulf of Mexico, the state still has to deal with remnants of tropical depressions or hurricanes every year. As a result, large amounts of rain fall every year and several tornadoes can be formed as a result of these showers.
National Parks
Aerial view of Hot Springs National Park
There are 6 areas in Arkansas that are under the protection of the National Park Service:
- Hot Springs National Park
- Fort Smith National Historic Site
- Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
- Pea Ridge National Military Park
- Arkansas Post National Memorial
- Buffalo National River
Demographics
Arkansas had an estimated population of 3,078,204 (22 per km²), of whom about 78% were whites and over 15% African Americans. The main religion is Christianity, which is adhered to by 86% of the inhabitants.
Cities
The largest cities are in order of population (2017):
- Little Rock (capital) (population 198,633)
- Fort Smith (population 88,031)
- Fayetteville (population 85,226)
- Springdale (79,582 inhabitants)
- Jonesboro (75,489 inhabitants)
- North Little Rock (population 65,996)
- Conway (population 65,734)
- Pine Bluff (42,758 inhabitants)
Economy and Infrastructure
Arkansas’s economy is largely based on agriculture. The main agricultural products the state produces include poultry, eggs, cotton, and soybeans. However, the industrial sector has developed and is growing in importance in recent decades. Arkansas is the only state in the US where diamonds are found. Furthermore, bauxite and bromine are also mined.
In 1962, the Walmart company was founded with the first store in Rogers. It has since become one of the largest corporations and largest employers in the United States, headquartered in Bentonville.
The state’s gross product was $128 billion in 2018. The largest airport is Little Rock National Airport.
Administrative division
According to COUNTRYAAH, Arkansas is divided into 75 counties.
| County | Inhabitants 1 July, 2007 |
County Seat | Inhabitants 1 July, 2007 |
| Arkansas | 19.392 | De Witt | 3281 |
| Ashley | 22.326 | Hamburg | 2731 |
| Baxter | 41.950 | Mountain Home | 12.457 |
| Benton | 203.107 | Bentonville | 33.744 |
| Boone | 36.672 | Harrison | 13.108 |
| Bradley | 11.979 | Warren | 6155 |
| Calhoun | 5535 | Hampton | 1498 |
| Carroll | 27.429 | Berryville | 5193 |
| Chicot | 12.305 | Lake Village | 2455 |
| Clark | 23.585 | Arkadelphia | 10.833 |
| Clay | 16.134 | Piggott Corning |
3554 3365 |
| Cleburne | 25.407 | Heber Springs | 7180 |
| Cleveland | 8769 | Rison | 1303 |
| Columbia | 24.351 | Magnolia | 11.154 |
| Conway | 20.740 | Morrilton | 6580 |
| Craighead | 91.552 | Jonesboro | 63.190 |
| Crawford | 59.031 | Van Buren | 22.001 |
| Crittenden | 52.103 | Marion | 11.058 |
| Cross | 18.685 | Wynne | 8364 |
| Dallas | 8249 | Fordyce | 4287 |
| Desha | 13.799 | Arkansas City | 531 |
| Drew | 18.745 | Monticello | 9355 |
| Faulkner | 104.865 | Conway | 57.006 |
| Franklin | 18.157 | Ozark | 3557 |
| Fulton | 11.752 | Salem | 1553 |
| Garland | 96.371 | Hot Springs | 39.064 |
| Grant | 17.460 | Sheridan | 4602 |
| Greene | 40.397 | Paragould | 24.505 |
| Hempstead | 23.226 | Hope | 10.478 |
| Hot Spring | 31.850 | Malvern | 8957 |
| Howard | 13.997 | Nashville | 4763 |
| Independence | 34.566 | Batesville | 9504 |
| Izard | 12.978 | Melbourne | 1684 |
| Jackson | 17.219 | Newport | 7524 |
| Jefferson | 78.986 | Pine Bluff | 50.667 |
| Johnson | 24.747 | Clarksville | 8517 |
| Lafayette | 7760 | Lewisville | 1159 |
| Lawrence | 16.860 | Walnut Ridge | 4671 |
| Lee | 10.859 | Marianna | 4425 |
| Lincoln | 13.729 | Star City | 2241 |
| Little River | 12.812 | Ashdown | 4446 |
| Logan | 22.599 | Booneville Paris |
4075 3622 |
| Lonoke | 63.562 | Lonoke | 4508 |
| Madison | 15.420 | Huntsville | 2367 |
| Marion | 16.629 | Yellville | 1356 |
| Miller | 42.662 | Texarkana | 29.624 |
| Mississippi | 46.664 | Blytheville Osceola |
16.076 7874 |
| Monroe | 8712 | Clarendon | 1708 |
| Montgomery | 9048 | Mount Ida | 944 |
| Nevada | 9376 | Prescott | 4459 |
| Newton | 8339 | Jasper | 485 |
| Ouchita | 26.068 | Camden | 11.657 |
| Perry | 10.391 | Perryville | 1451 |
| Phillips | 22.035 | Helena | 12.426 |
| Pike | 10.791 | Murfreesboro | 1668 |
| Poinsett | 24.850 | Harrisburg | 2117 |
| Polk | 20.197 | Mena | 5588 |
| Pope | 58.961 | Russellville | 26.700 |
| Prairie | 8739 | Des Arc | 1742 |
| Pulaski | 373.911 | Little Rock | 187.452 |
| Randolph | 18.089 | Pocahontas | 6703 |
| Saline | 96.212 | Benton | 28.352 |
| Scott | 11.304 | Waldron | 3589 |
| Searcy | 8087 | Marshall | 1267 |
| Sebastian | 121.766 | Fort Smith | 84.375 |
| Sevier | 16.325 | De Queen | 5883 |
| Sharp | 17.848 | Ash Flat | 1031 |
| St. Francis | 26.900 | Forrest City | 13.540 |
| Stone | 11.971 | Mountain View | 3063 |
| Union | 43.230 | El Dorado | 19.891 |
| Van Buren | 16.507 | Clinton | 2376 |
| Washington | 194.292 | Fayetteville | 72.208 |
| White | 73.441 | Searcy | 21.749 |
| Woodruff | 7649 | Augusta | 2316 |
| Yell | 21.786 | Danville | 2463 |
Politics
Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock
Old State House
State level
The executive branch of the state is headed by a governor, who is directly elected by the voters in the state. In 2014, Asa Hutchinson of the Republican Party was elected governor of the state of Arkansas. He took over from his Democratic predecessor Mike Beebe on January 13, 2015 , who held the governorship for eight years.
Former President of the United States Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas in the 1980s.
The legislature consists of the Arkansas House of Representatives (Arkansas House of Representatives) with 100 members and the Arkansas Senate (Arkansas Senate) with 35 members. Both houses held decades of Democratic majority from 1874 until the 2012 election, when Republicans gained a majority. Since then, they have further provided their majority.
Federal level
In the 2004 US presidential election, the state voted for George W. Bush and again in 2008 the majority voted for Republican candidate John McCain.
Arkansas’s representation in the United States Congress consists of two senators and four representatives. Where these used to be invariably Democrats, these are now all Republicans.
