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Arkansas, state in the United States, classified as one of the west south central states. The term is appropriate, for west, south, and Midwest states seem to meet in Arkansas. The southwestern section of the state, with its cattle and oil fields, has the feeling of the Western Plains. Dairy farms and orchards in the northwest seem more akin to parts of the Corn Belt, while the cotton plantations in the east toward the Mississippi River are reminiscent of the Deep South. Arkansas's natural resources are abundant water; vast forests of quick-growing pines and valuable hardwoods; and extensive deposits of oil, natural gas, and many other minerals. Arkansas entered the Union on June 15, 1836, as the 25th state. Until the 1950s Arkansas was primarily an agricultural state. Farming was the chief source of income, but a meager source for many, particularly in the uplands, and many people left Arkansas in search of a better livelihood. Then, Arkansas, aided by coordinated planning and new developments in transportation and power production, began to industrialize very rapidly. By the end of the 1950s manufacturing had surpassed farming as the chief source of income, and in the late 1990s Arkansas had an economy dominated by the manufacturing and service sectors. Tourism has also become important. The diversified and fairly well-balanced economy is reflected in the state's official nickname as The Land of Opportunity. Arkansas is also called The Natural State by tourism promoters. The name Arkansas comes from Arkansa, the French name for Native Americans of the Quapaw tribe and the region they inhabited. The s was added as a plural, though it remains silent in the pronunciation formally adopted by the state's legislature. Little Rock is the capital and largest city of Arkansas.
Arkansas ranks 28th among the states in size, and it covers 137,741 sq km (53,182 sq mi), including 2,867 sq km (1,107 sq mi) of inland water. Its maximum extent north to south is 386 km (240 mi), and east to west 444 km (276 mi). The mean elevation is about 200 m (650 ft).
Arkansas has two well-defined natural regions. A line drawn from the northeastern corner of the state southwestward through Little Rock to Arkadelphia, and from there due west to the Oklahoma border, separates the two regions. North and west of the line are the Interior Highlands; east and south of the line is the Coastal Plain. The Interior Highlands include the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains, and the Arkansas River Valley, which divides the two highland regions. The highest mountain peak in the state, Magazine Mountain, rises abruptly from the Arkansas Valley floor to 839 m (2,753 ft) above sea level. Other isolated peaks in the valley are Sugar Loaf Mountain, Poteau Mountain, Mount Nebo, and Petit Jean Mountain. North of the Arkansas Valley are the Ozark Mountains, or Ozark Plateaus, which lie mainly in southern Missouri. Commonly known as the Ozarks, they are made up of ancient sandstones and limestones. In many places the limestone has been dissolved by water to form caves, sinks (depressions or holes in the earth's surface), and even underground river channels. The southern part of the Ozarks is known as the Boston Mountains, which extend about 300 km (about 200 mi) from east to west. They form the most rugged part of the Ozarks and are bounded on the north by a gentle escarpment. With peaks more than 700 m (2,300 ft) high, the Boston Mountains are a heavily wooded tangle of steep sandstone ridges and jagged spurs, cut through by gorges as much as 430 m (1,400 ft) deep. South of the Arkansas Valley are the Ouachita Mountains, which also contain rocks of great age. The rock layers here were subjected to tremendous pressure in the geologic past and were pushed into folds that now form long, narrow ridges that run from east to west and are separated by wide basins. The Ouachitas cover a belt about 80 to 100 km (about 50 to 60 mi) wide extending from just west of Little Rock into Oklahoma. They rise to the west, reaching over 800 m (2,600 ft) at Blue Mountain near the Oklahoma state line. The Coastal Plain in Arkansas extends across the eastern and southern parts of the state in two sections. The easternmost section is composed of the fertile Mississippi Alluvial Plain. This is often called the Delta, and until it was cleared for agriculture it was an area of swamps, dense forest, and tangled undergrowth. Its flat expanse is broken only by a narrow strip of hills, called Crowley's Ridge, which extends about 240 km (about 150 mi) from Helena on the Mississippi River north to the Missouri border where it reaches a height of about 170 m (about 550 ft). West of the southern part of the Delta is the West Gulf Coastal Plain, drained by the Saline, Ouachita, and Red rivers.
Except in the Ozark and Ouachita uplands, where temperatures vary considerably from ridge to valley, the climate throughout Arkansas is fairly uniform. Summers are long and moderately hot, and winters are short and relatively mild. However, northward and westward from the Coastal Plain, there is a gradual change from warm winters and hot, humid summers to the clearer, brisker, drier weather and wider range of temperatures associated with the Interior Plains. January temperatures in most of Arkansas average between 3° and 8° C (38° and 46° F). July averages are between 26° and 28° C (78° and 82° F) throughout most of the state. They are usually in the middle 20°s C (upper 70°s F) in the Ozark and Ouachita uplands. Daytime highs in July are frequently in the middle 30°s C (90°s F) and sometimes the temperature rises to the upper 30°s C (lower 100°s F). Arkansas receives about 1,000 to 1,300 mm (about 40 to 50 in) of precipitation a year, and some areas receive even more. Most of the rain comes during winter and spring and at times is so heavy as to cause flooding. Snow is rare in the south but amounts to more than 250 mm (10 in) a year in the mountains.
In the early days of settlement, some farsighted Arkansans recognized that the region possessed valuable resources other than furs and hides. But the opportunities for economic development were limited. In the 1870s, railroads set up land offices to encourage new settlers, for more landholders in the state meant more farm products for rail shipment. Toward the end of the century, lumbering, still a major Arkansas industry, expanded rapidly in the immense, level pinelands of the south and the dense hardwoods of the Delta country. Coal mining, too, developed in the Arkansas River Valley as the railroad network was expanded. By the 1920s, cotton growing had shifted toward the Mississippi lowlands, livestock raising and dairying were increased, and oil had been discovered near the Texas and Louisiana borders. But, except for a flourishing wood-products industry, there was little manufacturing, and most Arkansans who left the land learned industrial skills outside the state. In the later half of the 20th century manufacturing became important. The Arkansas Industrial Development Commission was established in 1955 to bring new industries into the state, expand existing ones, and provide technical assistance in locating factories. Within five years Arkansas had achieved extensive industrialization. Arkansas had a work force of 1,222,000 people in 1999. The largest share of those, 24 percent, worked in the diverse services sector, which includes such occupations as health care workers and automobile mechanics. Another 21 percent were employed in wholesale or retail trade; 18 percent in manufacturing; 14 percent in federal, state, or local government, including those in the military; 6 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing; 6 percent in transportation or public utilities; 6 percent in construction; 5 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; and just 0.4 percent in mining. In 1998, 6 percent of the state's workers were members of a labor union.
Development of its rich mineral resources has helped to bring industrial growth to Arkansas. Two mineral fuels—petroleum and natural gas—account for much of the state's income from mining. Beds of high quality bituminous and semianthracite coal underlie about 4,100 sq km (about 1,600 sq mi) of the Arkansas River valley in the western part of the state. There are also vast deposits of lignite in central and southwest Arkansas whose uses were explored in the 1980s. Natural gas occurs in the upper western Arkansas River valley, and it also flows in great quantities from oil wells in southwestern Arkansas. There, however, since the gas is of a type that needs to be processed before burning, most of it is converted into gasoline or other valuable by-products and is not used as a fuel itself. Arkansas became a petroleum-producing state in the early 1920s, when oil fields were discovered near El Dorado, in the southern part of the state. The chief producing regions are now Lafayette, Columbia, and Union counties. Arkansas leads the nation in the production of bromine, used in gasoline antiknock mixtures and other chemicals. The state also has important deposits of building stone. Most of the good building stone is found in the Ozark Mountains. Also mined in Arkansas are significant quantities of limestone, barite, and silica. Bauxite deposits, which are concentrated in central Arkansas, are no longer mined commercially. Arkansas has one of two diamond mines in the United States, the other being located near Fort Collins, Colorado. The diamonds of Pike County, in southwestern Arkansas, were found in 1906 in the pipe of an ancient volcano. The mine was worked from 1908 until 1925, when it became inactive. In 1971 it became the Crater of Diamonds State Park, where visitors may keep any diamonds they find. Some sizable gem stones have been found, but most are of industrial quality.
Industry is the state's largest source of income. Until the 1940s most of Arkansas's industry was based on the local output of forest, farm, and mine. However, in the second half of the 20th century the importance of such industries declined, and the state experienced a great upsurge in the production of consumer goods. Many textile and leather plants were opened in the state, as well as factories to produce electrical machinery, fabricated metals, and transportation equipment. Still, in terms of value added by the manufacturing process, the turning of Arkansas's natural resources into goods remains the leading industry. The processing of food products far exceeds any other industrial activity in value, particularly the preparation of meat and the packaging of fruits and vegetables. Following in importance are the production of lumber and wood products and the milling of paper, both dependent on the forests in the state. The principal industrial centers are Little Rock, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, and the Fayetteville-Springdale area. Wood processing and furniture making are important in central and western Arkansas, notably at Pine Bluff and Fort Smith, and also in many Ozark towns, such as Rogers in the northwest. Paper products are made at Camden, Pine Bluff, Crossett, Ashdown, and other centers in the southern pine belt. El Dorado, also in the south, is a center of oil refineries and chemical plants. Rice processing, cotton ginning, and the manufacture of cottonseed oil are old, established industries at Stuttgart, Jonesboro, and other cities and towns of the northeast and east. Many food processing plants have been built to accommodate the poultry production. These plants are located in the small- to medium-sized towns in the Ozarks, along the Arkansas River valley, and in western Arkansas. However, many new plants, making such items as electronics equipment, air conditioners, shoes, and light metal goods, have been established in the state.
Early in the 19th century, Little Rock began to develop as a commercial center. During the California gold rush of the 1840s, Fort Smith boomed as a supply depot. Pine Bluff became the state's leading cotton port after the American Civil War (1861-1865); with the arrival of the railroad it also became a lumber center. The railroads also fostered the growth of other cities. Today, Little Rock is still the center of trade. The completion in 1971 of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, tying in to the Mississippi River-Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, has made the Arkansas an important part of the nation's inland waterways (see Intracoastal Waterway). Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Pine Bluff are major ports on the Arkansas; the state's only ports on the Mississippi are Osceola and Helena.
In the 1990 national census, Arkansas had 2,350,725 inhabitants, compared with 2,286,357 in 1980. The population estimate for 1999 was 2,551,373. Between 1940 and 1960 Arkansas lost population as its displaced farm workers moved to other states in search of jobs. The development of new industries, beginning in the late 1950s, reversed this trend; between 1970 and 1980 the population increased by 18.9 percent, and it grew 2.8 percent between 1980 and 1990. The urban population of Arkansas has risen steadily. The rural population declined from the 1940s through the 1960s, but in the 1970s it again increased. Nevertheless, the urbanizing trend continued. By 1990, 54 percent of the people of Arkansas lived in areas defined as urban. The average population density in 1999 was 19 persons per sq km (49 per sq mi). Whites make up 82.7 percent of Arkansas's population and blacks comprise 15.9 percent. Between 1860 and 1930 blacks made up more than one-third of the population. Beginning in the 1930s, many blacks left Arkansas to seek employment in the North, and their numbers in the state declined. While the total number of blacks is again increasing, the percentage increase is less than the growth in the population as a whole, so their proportion of the state's people continues to decline. Native Americans account for 0.6 percent of the population, Asians and Pacific Islanders 0.5 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting ethnicity 0.3 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 0.8 percent of the people.
The principal cities are Little Rock, with a 1998 population of 175,303, the state capital and chief commercial center, on the Arkansas River; Fort Smith (75,637), an industrial center; North Little Rock (59,184), on the opposite bank of the river; Pine Bluff (52,968), a center of the state's wood-processing industry; Jonesboro (52,250), a commercial and farm-goods processing center; Fayetteville (53,300), an industrial city and distribution center for a rich agricultural region; and Hot Springs (37,961), a resort and spa in the Ouachita Mountains.
State law requires all children between the ages of 5 and 17 to attend school. Only 76.8 percent of those over age 25 in the state have high school diplomas, one of the lowest rates in the country (the national average was 82.8 percent). In the 1995-1996 school year Arkansas spent $4,710 on each student's education, compared to a national average of $6,146. There were 17.1 students for every teacher, compared to the national average of 17.1 students. Some 8 percent of the state's children attend private schools. Arkansas has 34 public institutions of higher education and 13 private institutions. Among them are the University of Arkansas (1871), with branches in Fayetteville, Little Rock, Monticello, and Pine Bluff; Lyon College (1872), in Batesville; Arkansas State University (1909), in State University, near Jonesboro; Arkansas Baptist College (1884), in Little Rock; University of the Ozarks (1834), in Clarksville; Harding University (1924), in Searcy; Henderson State University (1890), in Arkadelphia; and Hendrix College (1876) and the University of Central Arkansas (1907), in Conway.
Arkansas offers excellent opportunities for recreation. The visitor to Arkansas may enjoy a backwoods vacation in some rustic Ozark retreat or sample the more sophisticated pleasures of a cosmopolitan spa. The trail of history leads to many interesting places: the site of Arkansas Post, where French explorer Henri de Tonty established a fort in 1686; Washington, where Sam Houston, Stephen Austin, and Davy Crockett are said to have met in a tavern to plan the independence of Texas; and the Civil War battlefield at Pea Ridge. Fall is the season for livestock shows, county fairs, and folk dance festivals. Duck hunters come for the shooting season, and fishing enthusiasts find excellent opportunities in many of Arkansas's lakes and streams. The National Park Service administers five national sites in Arkansas. The first European settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley is commemorated at Arkansas Post National Memorial, in Gillette. The post's construction by a lieutenant of French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was an opening move in a struggle between France, Spain, and England for control of the North American interior. Fort Smith National Historic Site at Fort Smith was one of the first U.S. military posts in the Louisiana Territory. From here government policy toward Native Americans was enforced. Pea Ridge National Military Park commemorates a victory by Union forces during the Civil War which led to control of the Missouri River by Northern forces. Hot Springs National Park contains 47 hot springs used for many years for therapeutic treatments. Buffalo National River, with headquarters in Harrison, is one of the few remaining free-flowing rivers in the lower 48 states. The river cuts through massive limestone bluffs on its course through the Ozark Mountains. There are three national forests in Arkansas, covering about 970,000 hectares (about 2.4 million acres) of land ranging from flatland, to rolling hills, to beautiful mountains. The largest is Ouachita National Forest, part of which lies in Oklahoma. It offers many attractions, including Lake Ouachita and historic Caddo Gap, where Hernando De Soto, the Spanish explorer who in the 1540s was the first European to explore the region, fought the Native Americans. Seven wilderness areas are preserved in the forest. Ozark National Forest is in four separate areas, three north of the Arkansas River and one south of it. It includes four national wildlife refuges, a number of state game and fish refuges, five wilderness areas, and many scenic drives. Saint Francis National Forest covers a small region in eastern Arkansas along the Saint Francis River. Arkansas has 47 state parks. Devil's Den State Park, in a rugged part of the Boston Mountains, contains unusual sandstone formations and a giant crevice, known as the Devil's Ice Box, where the temperature never goes above 16° C (60° F). Petit Jean State Park, located on Petit Jean Mountain near the Arkansas River, is the oldest and one of the more beautiful state parks. Crowley's Ridge State Park, at Walcott, is noted for its fossils of prehistoric plants and animals. Excellent fishing, boating, swimming, and picnicking facilities may be enjoyed at De Gray Lake, Bull Shoals, Lake Catherine, and Lake Ouachita state parks.
Arkansas has had five constitutions since it was admitted to the Union. The present constitution was adopted in 1874 and has been amended frequently since then. Constitutional amendments may be proposed by the state legislature, by a constitutional convention, or by a petition of 10 percent of the number of voters in the last gubernatorial election. Approval by a popular majority is required. Officials of the executive branch of the state government include the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general, and commissioner of lands. Since 1986 all have been elected for four-year terms. In 1999 Mike Huckabee, a Republican, was governor. The legislature, known as the General Assembly, consists of a Senate of 35 members, elected for four-year terms, and a House of Representatives of 100 members, elected for two-year terms. The legislature meets in regular session in odd-numbered years, beginning on the second Monday in January. Sessions are limited to 60 days but may be extended by a two-thirds vote in both houses. The judiciary consists of a seven-member supreme court; circuit courts; chancery courts; and county, municipal, and justice-of-the-peace courts. A county judge has wide powers to manage county affairs generally and preside over juvenile courts, county court sessions, and the county justices of the peace when they sit as a quorum court. The quorum court levies taxes and appropriates funds for county offices and agencies. Arkansas has 75 counties, each of which is administered by a county judge. Other elected county officials include the treasurer, assessor, sheriff, clerk, coroner, surveyor, and collector. Until 1956, when Little Rock adopted the council and city manager plan, municipal government in Arkansas was traditionally by mayor and council. Since then most other cities have adopted the council and city manager plan. Arkansas has two U.S. senators and four U.S. representatives. The state has six electoral votes in presidential elections.
The Democratic Party maintained its dominance in state politics through the earlier 20th century. When Jeff Davis went to the U.S. Senate in 1907, the party again came under the influence of the conservative plantation owners and business leaders. On the national scene, Arkansas Senator Joseph T. Robinson was prominent as the vice-presidential running mate of Alfred E. Smith, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1928. Later he was an effective though reluctant supporter of the federal New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which were designed to relieve the plight of workers hurt by the Depression of the 1930s. Other prominent Arkansas politicians were U.S. Senator and former Rhodes Scholar J. William Fulbright, a notable internationalist and critic of the Vietnam War (1959-1975) who chaired the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1959 to 1974; and John McClellan, a conservative. Their successors, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor, also achieved national recognition. From 1900 on, state political contests mostly consisted of Democrats vying among themselves for office. In 1966, however, Winthrop Rockefeller, a Republican, was elected governor; he served two terms, but was defeated in 1970 by Democrat Dale Bumpers. Rockefeller's Republican victory was in part due to the unprecedented 12-year scandal-ridden administration of Democrat Orval E. Faubus, first elected in 1954. When the federal government ordered the integration of Little Rock's schools in 1957, Faubus led a massive resistance movement, which gained nationwide attention. He became a hero to segregationists and was undefeatable from 1958 to 1964. However, Faubus chose not to run in 1966, allegedly because of financial scandals, and left the party badly divided. When he tried to make political comebacks in 1970 and 1974, he was unable to get the Democratic nomination. In 1978 Bill Clinton, a Democrat concerned with social issues such as health care and education, was elected governor. Although defeated by Republican Frank White in 1980, he recaptured the governor's seat two years later and held it until he was elected president of the United States in 1992. During the presidential campaign, Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were plagued by charges of financial impropriety growing out of their involvement in Whitewater, an Ozark resort development of which they were part owners. In 1996 Democrat Jim Guy Tucker, Clinton's successor as Arkansas governor, and two others were convicted on conspiracy and mail fraud charges growing out of a special prosecution in this so-called Whitewater Affair. The Whitewater Affair was also the subject of a U.S. Senate investigation. The convictions gave momentum to the investigation and lent credence to the view of some that Arkansas was home to a corrupt old-boy network that included President Clinton. Tucker announced that he would appeal his conviction but would resign as governor. The result was expected to be further erosion of Democratic power in Arkansas to the benefit of the Republicans. Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee renounced a U.S. Senate seat to succeed Tucker and become Arkansas's third Republican governor in the 20th century. In 1996 Republicans held two of the state's four seats in Congress and some seats in the legislature, and dominated politics in western and northwestern Arkansas. The era of one-party domination had ended.
The subject of relocating, or relocation can be intimidating to some folks who have to move for one reason or another. A large relocation company, when relocating a family can not always give the kind of personal relocating services that we can. We hope that when searching for us with a search engine you use some of the following keywords: estate, real estate, home, homes, house, housing, realtor, escrow, mortgage, finance, financing, refinance, refinancing, for sale, property, properties, mover, movers, relocation, relocate, marketing, advertising, appraisal, Arizona, Arkansas, California, New York, Florida, District of Columbia, Illinois, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. If you are reading this, thanks for coming.
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