Arkansas is a southern state in the southern United States. The 2000 census was 2,673,400. Its U.S. postal abbreviation is AR. It was admitted in 1836.

USS Arkansas was named in honor of this state.

Contents [showhide]
1 History

2 Law and government

3 Geography

3.1 Interstate highways
3.2 United States highways

4 Economy

5 Demographics

6 Important cities and towns

7 Education

7.1 Colleges and universities

8 External links

[edit]
History
The early French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling for the French word for "downriver" people, a reference to the Quapaw people and the river along which they settled. Other Native American nations living in present-day Arkansas were Caddo and Osage.

On June 15, 1836, Arkansas became the 25th state of the United States as a slave state. Arkansas seceded from the Union on May 6, 1861 during the American Civil War. Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress, by June 1868, had readmitted Arkansas, as well as North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

The state is the only one with an official pronunciation. The traditional form "arkanSAW" was made official by the state legislature in 1881.

[edit]
Law and government
The current governor of Arkansas is Mike Huckabee, a Republican. Huckabee, who had been elected lieutenant governor in a 1993 special election, ascended to the governor's office when Governor Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat, was convicted of felony mail fraud as part of the Whitewater Scandal. This led to a state "Constitutional crisis" when Tucker refused to give up the governor's office for a short period of time, because the Arkansas Constitution does not allow a convicted felon to be governor of the state. Tucker had been lieutenant governor under Bill Clinton and had become governor as a result of Clinton's election to the presidency.

In Arkansas, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor and thus can be from a different political party.

See: List of Arkansas Governors

[edit]
Geography
See: List of Arkansas counties

The capital of Arkansas is Little Rock. Arkansas is the only state in the US where diamonds are found naturally.

The eastern Arkansas border is the Mississippi River. 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 beautiful land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. The Ozark and Ouachita mountain ranges in northern and western Arkansas are known as the Highlands; the southern and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands.

The so called Lowlands are better known as the Delta and the Grand Prairie. The land along the Mississippi river is referred to as the "Delta" of Arkansas. It gets this name from the formation of its rich alluvial soils formed from the flooding of the mighty Mississippi. The Grand Prairie is slightly away from the Mississippi river in the southeast portion of the state and consists of a more undulating landscape. Both are fertile agricultural areas and home to much of the crop agriculture in the state.

[edit]
Interstate highways
Interstate 30
Interstate 40
Interstate 55
[edit]
United States highways
North-south routes East-west routes
U.S. Highway 425
U.S. Highway 49
U.S. Highway 59
U.S. Highway 61
U.S. Highway 63
U.S. Highway 65
U.S. Highway 165
U.S. Highway 67
U.S. Highway 167
U.S. Highway 71
U.S. Highway 371
U.S. Highway 79
U.S. Highway 412
U.S. Highway 62
U.S. Highway 64
U.S. Highway 70
U.S. Highway 270
U.S. Highway 278
U.S. Highway 82

[edit]
Economy
The state's total gross state product for 1999 was $64 billion placing Arkansas 33rd in the nation. Its Per Capita Personal Income for 2000 was $22,257, 47th in the nation. The state's argiculture outputs are poultry and eggs, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, cotton, rice, hogs, and milk. Its industrial outputs are food processing, electric equipment, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper products, bromine, and vanadium.

[edit]
Demographics
As of 2000, the state's population was 2,673,400.

See also: List of people from Arkansas

[edit]
Important cities and towns
Little Rock
North Little Rock
Jacksonville
Benton
Sherwood
Cabot
Fayetteville
Springdale
Rogers
Bentonville
Fort Smith
Van Buren
Memphis, Tennessee
West Memphis
Pine Bluff
Jonesboro
Hot Springs
Conway
Russellville
Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana
Searcy
El Dorado
Blytheville
Paragould
Forrest City
Siloam Springs
West Helena
Harrison
Mountain Home
Camden
Batesville
Arkadelphia
Hope
Magnolia
Maumelle
Bella Vista

[edit]
Education
[edit]
Colleges and universities
Arkansas Baptist College
Arkansas State University
Arkansas Tech University
Central Baptist College
Harding University
Henderson State University
Hendrix College
John Brown University
Lyon College
Ouachita Baptist University
Philander Smith College
Southern Arkansas University
University of Arkansas System
University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas - Fort Smith
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
University of Arkansas at Monticello
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
University of Central Arkansas
University of the Ozarks
Williams Baptist College
[edit]
External links
http://www.state.ar.us Official State Homepage
origins of the name (http://www.aedc.state.ar.us/Film/Facts.htm)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "arkansas".

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