Historically, ARKANSAS belongs very much to the American South.
It sided firmly with the Confederacy in the Civil War and its capital,
Little Rock, was, in 1957, one of the most notorious flashpoints
in the struggle for civil rights. Geographically, however, it marks
the beginning of the Great Plains. Unlike the other Southern states,
on the far side of the Mississippi River, Arkansas remained very
sparsely populated until almost a century ago. Westward expansion
was blocked by the existence of the Indian Territory in what's
now Oklahoma, and not until the railroads opened up the forested
interior during the 1880s did settlers stray in any numbers from
their small riverside villages. Only once the Depression and mechanization
had forced thousands of farmers to leave their fields did Arkansas
begin to develop any significant industrial base. In 1992, local
boy Bill Clinton's accession to the presidency catapulted Arkansas
into national prominence. Four towns lay claim to him: Hope, his
birthplace; Hot Springs, his "home town"; Fayetteville,
where he and Hillary married; and, of course, Little Rock, the
state capital. Of the four, only sleepy Little Rock and the nearby
spa resort of Hot Springs are worth a trip, whatever the tourist
brochures may say.
Though Arkansas encompasses the Mississippi Delta in the east,
oil-rich timber lands in the south, and the sweeping Ouachita
( Wash-i-taw ) Mountains in the west, the cragged and charismatic
Ozark Mountains in the north are its most scenic asset, where
the main attractions for tourists are the uncrowded parks and
unspoiled rivers. Incidentally, "Arkansas" is a distorted
version of the name of a small Indian tribe; the state legislature
declared once and for all in 1881 that the correct pronunciation
is Arkansaw .
