Arkansas

State of Arkansas

Flag Seal
Nickname(s): The Natural State (current)
The Land of Opportunity (former)
Motto(s): Regnat populus (Latin)



Official language(s) English
Demonym Arkansan; Arkansawyer
Capital Little Rock
Largest city Little Rock
Largest metro area Little Rock Metropolitan Area
Area  Ranked 29th in the US
 - Total 53,179 sq mi
(137,002 km²)
 - Width 239 miles (385 km)
 - Length 261 miles (420 km)
 - % water 2.09
 - Latitude 33° 00′ N to 36° 30′ N
 - Longitude 89° 39′ W to 94° 37′ W
Population  Ranked 32nd in the US
 - Total 2,855,390 (2008 est.)
2,673,400 (2000)
- Density 51.34/sq mi  (19.82/km²)
Ranked 34th in the US
Elevation  
 - Highest point Mount Magazine
2,753 ft  (840 m)
 - Mean 650 ft  (198 m)
 - Lowest point Ouachita River
55 ft  (17 m)
Before statehood Arkansas Territory
Admission to Union  June 15, 1836 (25th)
Governor Mike Beebe (D)
Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter (D)
Legislature General Assembly
 - Upper house Senate
 - Lower house House of Representatives
U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln (D)
Mark Pryor (D)
U.S. House delegation 3 Democrats, 1 Republican (list)
Time zone Central: UTC-6/DST-5
Abbreviations AR Ark. US-AR
Website http://www.arkansas.gov


Arkansas State Symbols

The Flag of Arkansas.

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Animate insignia
Bird(s) Mockingbird
Butterfly Diana Fritillary
Flower(s) Apple blossom
Insect European honey bee
Mammal(s) White-tailed deer
Tree Loblolly Pine

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Inanimate insignia
Beverage Milk
Dance Square Dance
Food South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato
Gemstone Diamond
Instrument Fiddle
Mineral Quartz
Rock Bauxite
Soil Stuttgart
Song(s) Arkansas (song),
Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me),
Oh, Arkansas,
The Arkansas Traveler
Tartan Arkansas Traveler Tartan

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Route marker(s)

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State Quarter

Released in 2003

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Lists of United States state insignia

Arkansas (ⁱ /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw) is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.

Origin of the name

The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word "Arkansas" itself is a French pronunciation ("Arcansas") of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word "akakaze" meaning "land of downriver people" or the Sioux word "Akakaze" meaning "people of the south wind". The pronunciation of Arkansas was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881, after a dispute between the two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the name /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-KAN-zəs and the other wanted /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw.

In 2007, the state legislature officially declared the possessive form of the state's name to be Arkansas's.

Geography

The Mississippi River forms most of Arkansas's eastern border, except in Clay and Greene counties where the St. Francis River forms the western boundary of the Missouri Bootheel, and in dozens of places where the current channel of the Mississippi has meandered from where it had last been legally specified. Arkansas shares its southern border with Louisiana, its northern border with Missouri, its eastern border with Tennessee and Mississippi, and its western border with Texas and Oklahoma.

Arkansas is a land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. The so-called Lowlands are better known by names of their two regions, the Delta and the Grand Prairie. The Arkansas Delta is a flat landscape of rich alluvial soils formed by repeated flooding of the adjacent Mississippi. Further away from the river, in the southeast portion of the state, the Grand Prairie consists of a more undulating landscape. Both are fertile agricultural areas.

The Delta region is bisected by an unusual geological formation known as Crowley's Ridge. A narrow band of rolling hills, Crowley's Ridge rises from 250 to 500 feet (150 m) above the surrounding alluvial plain and underlies many of the major towns of eastern Arkansas.

Northwest Arkansas is part of the Ozark Plateau including the Boston Mountains, to the south are the Ouachita Mountains and these regions are divided by the Arkansas River; the southern and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands. These mountain ranges are part of the U.S. Interior Highlands region, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. The highest point in the state is Mount Magazine in the Ozark Mountains; it rises to 2,753 feet (839 m) above sea level.

Arkansas is home to many caves, such as Blanchard Springs Caverns. More than 43,000 Native American living, hunting and tool making sites, many of them Pre-Columbian burial mounds and rock shelters, have been catalogued by the State Archeologist. Arkansas is currently the only U.S. state in which diamonds are mined—although by members of the public with primitive digging tools for a small daily fee, not by commercial interests. (near Murfreesboro).

Arkansas is home to many areas protected by the National Park System. These include: