50 Fun Facts About Arkansas

The name Arkansas comes from a French rendering of a word for which Native American people?

The Algonquian term akansa is thought to mean "south wind people"; the same root gave another state its name.

How did the Arkansas legislature officially rule the state's name should be pronounced in 1881?

The resolution called the AR-kan-zas version "an innovation to be discouraged"; a 2007 resolution added that the possessive is Arkansas's.

Arkansas joined the Union on June 15, 1836, as which number state?

Congress approved its constitution after a 25-hour session; it was the 13th slave state, with about 60,000 residents.

Which Spanish explorer crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas in 1541 and died there the following year?

His men sank his body in the Mississippi at night and told locals he had ascended into the sky to keep up the pretence that he was immortal.

What was the first European settlement in the future state, founded by Henri de Tonti in 1686?

It later served as the territorial capital until 1821 and saw the state's only Revolutionary War action, a 1783 siege.

Which country sold Arkansas to the United States in 1803?

It came as part of the Louisiana Purchase; French soldiers stayed on as the garrison at the old post afterwards.

After Little Rock fell in 1863, Arkansas's Confederate government spent the rest of the war in which town?

It had first shifted briefly to Hot Springs; the old town is preserved today as Historic Washington State Park.

Which president ended the 1874 Brooks-Baxter War by ordering Brooks's militia dispersed?

A new constitution followed that re-enfranchised former Confederates and effectively ended Reconstruction in the state.

Which Ozark resort town grew to 10,000 people by 1900 on its healing waters and spa hotels?

It became the state's fourth-largest city almost overnight and now hosts the seven-story Christ of the Ozarks statue.

The 1919 Elaine massacre began when whites attacked Black sharecroppers organizing what?

An estimated 237 Black residents were killed; Governor Charles Brough personally accompanied the federal troops sent to stop it.

Roughly how many Japanese Americans were held at Arkansas' Rohwer and Jerome camps?

Rohwer in Desha County peaked at 8,475 prisoners and operated until November 1945.

Which governor used the National Guard to block nine Black students from Little Rock Central High in 1957?

After three failed attempts to reach him, President Eisenhower sent 1,000 federal paratroopers to escort the students in.

Which Army division did Eisenhower send to escort the Little Rock Nine into Central High in September 1957?

Rather than integrate, Little Rock then closed its high schools for the rest of the year; they were fully integrated by fall 1959.

Which state does NOT border Arkansas?

Six states touch it: Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma; the Mississippi River forms most of the eastern line.

Arkansas's highest point, at 2,753 feet, is which flat-topped mountain in the Ouachitas?

Its two summits are Signal Hill and Mossback Ridge, and it is often billed as the highest point between the Alleghenies and the Rockies.

Which two mountain ranges make up the US Interior Highlands, between the Rockies and Appalachians?

The Arkansas River divides the two ranges, with the Ozark Plateau to the north and the Ouachitas to the south.

Crowley's Ridge is the only place in Arkansas where which tree species grows?

The ridge generally hosts more northeastern plant life, such as beech, than the surrounding Delta.

Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro is famous as what?

The Uncle Sam, found there in 1924, is at over 40 carats the largest diamond ever found in the United States.

Who found the first diamonds at the future Crater of Diamonds site in 1906, having bought the land seeking gold?

He sold out for $36,000, and ten thousand prospectors soon descended on the neighbouring farms.

Hot Springs Reservation, created by Congress in 1832, is notable as what?

It became a national park in 1921 and, being the oldest site under the Park Service, got the first America the Beautiful quarter in 2010.

Which gangster helped make Hot Springs a gambling and speakeasy haven in the early 20th century?

The city was also home to Major League Baseball spring training from 1886 into the 1920s and to horse racing at Oaklawn Park.

Which Arkansas waterway became the first National River in the United States in 1972?

The designation ended repeated Army Corps of Engineers plans to dam it, and the park holds the state's only elk herd.

Arkansas is the nation's largest producer of which grain?

It also leads the country in broilers and turkeys and ranks in the top three for cotton and catfish.

Ducks Unlimited has called which Grand Prairie town "the epicenter of the duck universe"?

It sits on the Grand Prairie along the Mississippi Flyway and was named after the German city.

Arkansas's official nickname, "The Natural State", was created in the 1970s for what purpose?

Earlier nicknames included the Land of Opportunity; the state now runs 52 state parks.

Which company, the world's largest by revenue, was founded in Arkansas in 1962 and is based in Bentonville?

Six Fortune 500 companies are based in the state; the retailer sits at the very top of the list.

In which Arkansas town did Sam Walton open the very first Wal-Mart Discount City on July 2, 1962?

He had run a five-and-dime on the Bentonville square since 1950, after an earlier variety store elsewhere in the state.

In which Arkansas town did Sam Walton buy his first store, a Ben Franklin franchise, after WWII?

He funded it with a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and $5,000 saved from Army pay.

Which meat giant, America's largest meat company, is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas?

Its brands include Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm and Ball Park; Springdale is officially the state's Poultry Capital of the World.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville was founded by which retail heiress?

Its Moshe Safdie-designed pavilions sit in Ozark forest and admission is free thanks to a permanent endowment; 604,000 people visited in its first year.

Bill Clinton was born in 1946 in which Arkansas town?

He was born William Jefferson Blythe III; Mike Huckabee, another Arkansas governor, was born in the same town nine years later.

Bill Clinton's overlong speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention nominated which candidate?

Some journalists thought it had wrecked his ambitions; four years later he won the presidency with 43% of the vote in a three-way race.

Which Arkansas senator was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, in 1932?

She had been appointed to her late husband's seat in 1931 and won a full term with campaigning help from Louisiana's Huey Long.

Johnny Cash was born to cotton-farming parents in which tiny Arkansas community?

The family later moved to the New Deal colony at Dyess, where he grew up on gospel and worked the fields.

Which Maya Angelou memoir is set largely in Stamps, Arkansas, where she lived with her grandmother from age three?

John Grisham's A Painted House is another well-known novel set in the state.

Which soul singer, famous for "Let's Stay Together", was born in Forrest City, Arkansas, in 1946?

He was the sixth of ten children of a sharecropper before the family moved to Michigan.

Which Oscar-winning actor and writer of Sling Blade was born in Hot Springs in 1955?

His father was a high-school history teacher and basketball coach and his mother a self-proclaimed psychic.

Which five-star general was born at Little Rock Barracks in 1880?

The barracks' old arsenal building is now the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.

Bass Reeves, born into slavery in Crawford County, Arkansas, in 1838, became famous as what?

He is credited with more than 3,000 arrests and spoke several Native American languages.

Isaac Parker, who ran Fort Smith's federal court from 1875 to 1896, had what nickname?

The city's western-expansion history is preserved at Fort Smith National Historic Site.

Arkansas became the Razorbacks after playing like 'a wild band of Razorback hogs' against which rival in 1910?

They had been the Cardinals; they remain the only major US sports team with a pig for a nickname.

Why have the Arkansas Razorbacks and Arkansas State Red Wolves never met in football?

Arkansas State only reached the top division in 1992 after two decades in the lower tiers.

How many stars appear on the Arkansas state flag in total?

The white stars in the blue border count the states at the time of admission, and four blue stars sit inside the white diamond around the name.

Which state symbol is Arkansas's oldest, designated in 1901?

The most recent addition, in 2021, was a steam locomotive, Cotton Belt 819.

Arkansas shares its state bird with Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. What is it?

It was adopted in 1929; South Carolina used to have the same bird before switching to the Carolina wren.

Which cooking pot did Arkansas name its official state cooking vessel in 2001?

Texas and Utah honour the same pot; Arkansas also has an official state knife, the Bowie.

Which butterfly, found mainly in the Arkansas River valley, became the state's official butterfly in 2007?

Arkansas is the only state to choose it, pairing it with the honeybee as state insect.

Arkansaurus, the state dinosaur named in 2019, was discovered how?

Joe Friday's find near Lockesburg is the only dinosaur skeleton ever unearthed in Arkansas.

Which building in Texarkana sits directly on the Arkansas-Texas state line?

The twin cities were founded at a railroad crossroads in 1873 and share a metro area of about 147,000 people.

Which state park protects Arkansas's tallest surviving prehistoric mounds, once misattributed to the Toltecs?

The 18-mound complex on an Arkansas River oxbow lake was occupied from the 7th to the 11th century.