50 free Arkansas trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Arkansas is the only state with a diamond mine open to the public, the only one whose legislature voted on how to say its own name, and the home of the world's largest company by revenue. This quiz has 50 Arkansas trivia questions with answers covering all of it: the Quapaw origins of the name, statehood in 1836, the Civil War capital that moved to Washington, the Little Rock Nine, the flag's 25 stars and diamond, and the official state everything from mockingbird to Dutch oven. You will also meet the people and places that put the state on the map: Bill Clinton's Hope, Johnny Cash's Kingsland, Sam Walton's five-and-dime in Bentonville, Hot Springs' gangster-era bathhouses, the Buffalo National River, Mount Magazine and the Razorbacks' porcine nickname. Questions run from easy ones any Arkansan can answer to a few that will test lifelong residents, with the difficulty marked on each. It works for a classroom, a bar quiz round or a family road trip through the Ozarks. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles for Arkansas and its landmarks, and each question shows its source, so you can settle any argument on the spot.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name Arkansas comes from a French rendering of a word for which Native American people?
The Quapaw
The Algonquian term akansa is thought to mean "south wind people"; the same root gave another state its name.
Q 02How did the Arkansas legislature officially rule the state's name should be pronounced in 1881?
With the final "s" silent
The resolution called the AR-kan-zas version "an innovation to be discouraged"; a 2007 resolution added that the possessive is Arkansas's.
Q 03Arkansas joined the Union on June 15, 1836, as which number state?
25th
Congress approved its constitution after a 25-hour session; it was the 13th slave state, with about 60,000 residents.
Q 04Which Spanish explorer crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas in 1541 and died there the following year?
Hernando de Soto
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.
Q 05What was the first European settlement in the future state, founded by Henri de Tonti in 1686?
Arkansas Post
It later served as the territorial capital until 1821 and saw the state's only Revolutionary War action, a 1783 siege.
Q 06Which country sold Arkansas to the United States in 1803?
France
It came as part of the Louisiana Purchase; French soldiers stayed on as the garrison at the old post afterwards.
Q 07After Little Rock fell in 1863, Arkansas's Confederate government spent the rest of the war in which town?
Washington
It had first shifted briefly to Hot Springs; the old town is preserved today as Historic Washington State Park.
Q 08Which president ended the 1874 Brooks-Baxter War by ordering Brooks's militia dispersed?
Ulysses S. Grant
A new constitution followed that re-enfranchised former Confederates and effectively ended Reconstruction in the state.
Q 09Which Ozark resort town grew to 10,000 people by 1900 on its healing waters and spa hotels?
Eureka Springs
It became the state's fourth-largest city almost overnight and now hosts the seven-story Christ of the Ozarks statue.
Q 10The 1919 Elaine massacre began when whites attacked Black sharecroppers organizing what?
A farmers' union
An estimated 237 Black residents were killed; Governor Charles Brough personally accompanied the federal troops sent to stop it.
Q 11Roughly how many Japanese Americans were held at Arkansas' Rohwer and Jerome camps?
About 16,000
Rohwer in Desha County peaked at 8,475 prisoners and operated until November 1945.
Q 12Which governor used the National Guard to block nine Black students from Little Rock Central High in 1957?
Orval Faubus
After three failed attempts to reach him, President Eisenhower sent 1,000 federal paratroopers to escort the students in.
Q 13Which Army division did Eisenhower send to escort the Little Rock Nine into Central High in September 1957?
The 101st Airborne
Rather than integrate, Little Rock then closed its high schools for the rest of the year; they were fully integrated by fall 1959.
Q 21Which gangster helped make Hot Springs a gambling and speakeasy haven in the early 20th century?
Al Capone
The city was also home to Major League Baseball spring training from 1886 into the 1920s and to horse racing at Oaklawn Park.
Q 22Which Arkansas waterway became the first National River in the United States in 1972?
The Buffalo
The designation ended repeated Army Corps of Engineers plans to dam it, and the park holds the state's only elk herd.
Q 23Arkansas is the nation's largest producer of which grain?
Rice
It also leads the country in broilers and turkeys and ranks in the top three for cotton and catfish.
Q 14Which state does NOT border Arkansas?
Kansas
Six states touch it: Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma; the Mississippi River forms most of the eastern line.
Q 15Arkansas's highest point, at 2,753 feet, is which flat-topped mountain in the Ouachitas?
Mount Magazine
Its two summits are Signal Hill and Mossback Ridge, and it is often billed as the highest point between the Alleghenies and the Rockies.
Q 16Which two mountain ranges make up the US Interior Highlands, between the Rockies and Appalachians?
The Ozarks and the Ouachitas
The Arkansas River divides the two ranges, with the Ozark Plateau to the north and the Ouachitas to the south.
Q 17Crowley's Ridge is the only place in Arkansas where which tree species grows?
The tulip tree
The ridge generally hosts more northeastern plant life, such as beech, than the surrounding Delta.
Q 18Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro is famous as what?
The only public dig-and-keep gem field on Earth
The Uncle Sam, found there in 1924, is at over 40 carats the largest diamond ever found in the United States.
Q 19Who found the first diamonds at the future Crater of Diamonds site in 1906, having bought the land seeking gold?
John Wesley Huddleston
He sold out for $36,000, and ten thousand prospectors soon descended on the neighbouring farms.
Q 20Hot Springs Reservation, created by Congress in 1832, is notable as what?
The first federal land reserved for recreation
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.
Q 24Ducks Unlimited has called which Grand Prairie town "the epicenter of the duck universe"?
Stuttgart
It sits on the Grand Prairie along the Mississippi Flyway and was named after the German city.
Q 25Arkansas's official nickname, "The Natural State", was created in the 1970s for what purpose?
Tourism advertising
Earlier nicknames included the Land of Opportunity; the state now runs 52 state parks.
Q 26Which company, the world's largest by revenue, was founded in Arkansas in 1962 and is based in Bentonville?
Walmart
Six Fortune 500 companies are based in the state; the retailer sits at the very top of the list.
Q 27In which Arkansas town did Sam Walton open the very first Wal-Mart Discount City on July 2, 1962?
Rogers
He had run a five-and-dime on the Bentonville square since 1950, after an earlier variety store elsewhere in the state.
Q 28In which Arkansas town did Sam Walton buy his first store, a Ben Franklin franchise, after WWII?
Newport
He funded it with a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and $5,000 saved from Army pay.
Q 29Which meat giant, America's largest meat company, is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas?
Tyson Foods
Its brands include Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm and Ball Park; Springdale is officially the state's Poultry Capital of the World.
Q 30Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville was founded by which retail heiress?
Alice Walton
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.