flag of Arkansas
Seal of Arkansas
The mockingbird is the state bird of Arkansas.
The apple blossom is Arkansas's state flower.
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- Capital:
- Little Rock
- Population:
- (2020) 3,011,524; (2023 est.) 3,067,732
- Governor:
- Asa Hutchinson (Republican)
- Date Of Admission:
- June 15, 1836
- U.S. Senators:
- John Boozman (Republican)
- Tom Cotton (Republican)
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Arkansas, constituent state of the United States of America. Arkansas ranks 29th among the 50 states in total area, but, except for Louisiana and Hawaii, it is the smallest state west of the Mississippi River. Its neighbours are Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma to the west. The name Arkansas was used by the early French explorers to refer to the Quapaw people—a prominent indigenous group in the area—and to the river along which they settled. The term was likely a corruption of akansea, the word applied to the Quapaw by another local indigenous community, the Illinois. Little Rock, the state capital, is located in the central part of the state.
Arkansas’s landscape is a diverse one. The Ozark and Ouachita mountains in the north and west stand in contrast to the rich, flat, river-laced agricultural lands of the east. Nearly all the state’s rivers flow from northwest to southeast and empty via the Arkansas and Red rivers into the Mississippi, which forms the major eastern boundary.
As a result there was little incentive for immigration from other states, and the state’s population remained essentially hom*ogeneous. However, two distinct regional cultures emerged in association with two types of agricultural economy. The culture of the physically isolated Ozark and Ouachita mountain areas was based primarily on subsistence farming and small-scale wood-products industries. By contrast, the lowlands culture of the flat Mississippi floodplain of the east and south was founded on a typical Southern agricultural system with cotton plantations and extensive tenant farming (or sharecropping).
The cultural and economic contour of Arkansas has changed since the 1970s, as rapid economic and urban development in selected areas brought population growth and increased diversity. With improvements in transportation and greater integration of the state’s economy with the national and global economic systems—particularly in the 1980s and ’90s under the governorship and U.S. presidency of Arkansas native Bill Clinton—Arkansas received an influx of immigrants from outside the South. Although most came from other regions of the United States, many moved from abroad, particularly from various countries of Asia and, increasingly, from Mexico. The majority of the immigrants settled in urban areas, most notably Little Rock, Fort Smith, and other cities in the Arkansas River valley. Some, however, were attracted to the economically emergent northwestern corner of the state. In this era of rapid socioeconomic change, the state undertook many programs to accelerate development and to equalize educational, economic, and social opportunity. Area 53,179 square miles (137,732 square km). Population (2020) 3,011,524; (2023 est.) 3,067,732.
Britannica QuizU.S. State Nicknames QuizLand
Relief, drainage, and soils
A line drawn from the southwestern corner to the northeastern corner of the map of Arkansas approximates the division between the highlands that lie in the west and north and the lowlands that lie in the south and east. The highlands are divided by the Arkansas River valley into two physiographic regions: the Ozark Mountains in the north and the Ouachita Province in the south. The lowlands include the alluvial plain of the Mississippi River in the east and the western Gulf Coastal Plain in the south and extreme southwest.
The Ozark Mountain region is broken by broad, flat-topped ridges and steep valleys with fast-flowing streams. Its more rugged southern edge, known as the Boston Mountains, contains the highest elevations in the entire Ozark range. To the north lie the Springfield and Salem plateaus with gently rolling landscapes and underground drainage associated with limestone caves. The Arkansas River valley contains the highest point in the state, Mount Magazine, which rises to 2,753 feet (839 metres). Several mountains in the Ouachita Province reach heights of about 2,500 feet (760 metres). The mountains are eroded, folded, and faulted rocks, with the ridges stretching to the east and west.
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The western Gulf Coastal Plain, extending southward from the Ouachita Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico, is flat to gently rolling. It is underlain by marine sands and clay and has a covering of rich loams in some areas. The alluvial plain of the Mississippi River occupies approximately the eastern third of the state and is characterized by low relief and poor drainage. The landscape is dominated by tributaries of the Mississippi—most notably the Arkansas, White, and St. Francis rivers—as well as by former channels of the Mississippi river system. A long, narrow ridge, Crowley’s Ridge, extends some 200 miles (320 km) from southern Missouri into the northern part of the alluvial plain. The ridge is a dissected upland composed primarily of river sands and gravels capped with windblown silt.
Climate
The climate of Arkansas generally is mild in the winter and hot in the summer. In Little Rock in January, temperatures usually rise from a low of about 30 °F (–1 °C) to a high of about 50 °F (10 °C) daily; in July, daily low temperatures are normally in the low 70s (low 20s C), and high temperatures are in the low 90s F (low 30s C). Temperatures vary with elevation and latitude, however. Precipitation in Arkansas typically amounts to nearly 50 inches (1,270 mm) annually and is distributed about equally throughout the year. October, however, tends to be somewhat drier than other months. The wettest areas are in the Ouachita Mountains and the southeastern part of the state; the driest area is in the Ozarks in the northwest.
Plant and animal life
The Ozark Mountains and Crowley’s Ridge support extensive hardwood forests dominated by oak and hickory, with understories of dogwood and redbud. In the Ouachitas the vegetation is predominantly mixed pine and hardwood forest. The lowlands were extensively modified by agriculture, but remnants of the original bottomland hardwood forest remain. About half of the state is forest-covered.
Arkansas is the year-round home to some 300 native species of birds, including bald eagles, assorted hawks, barn owls, blue jays, cardinals and other finches, and flycatchers, among others. Sightings of the large, majestic ivory-billed woodpecker, for decades thought to be extinct, were reported in the early 21st century in the state’s east-central wooded wetlands. Arkansas is situated on the Mississippi flyway and thus is a seasonal way station for migratory ducks, geese, shorebirds, and various small land birds. The rice fields and reservoirs of the eastern part of the state attract many game birds and animals, among the most plentiful of which are turkeys, quail, deer, opossums, squirrels, and rabbits. Bobcats inhabit the hill country and feral hogs (locally known as razorbacks) are found in many parts of the state. In the mid-20th century black bears were reintroduced into the Ozarks. The lakes and streams of the state offer an abundance of fish, including crappie, bass, walleye, drum, catfish, buffalo, gar, and trout.
