Arkansas

Arkansas

(In Detail) (Full size)
State nickname: "The Natural State"
Other U.S. States
Capital	Little Rock
Largest City	Little Rock
Governor	Mike Huckabee
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water  - % water	Ranked 29th 137,732 km² 134,856 km² 2,876 km² 2.09%
Population  - Total (2000)  - Density	Ranked 33rd 2,673,400 19.8/km²
Admittance into Union  - Order  - Date	26th June 15, 1836
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Latitude Longitude	33°N to 36°30'N 89°41'W to 94°42'W
Width Length Elevation  - Highest  - Mean  - Lowest	385 km 420 km   839 meters 1,045 meters 17 meters
ISO 3166-2:	US-AR

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 as a slave state in 1836.

USS Arkansas was named in honor of this state.

Table of contents

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 7.3 Colleges and universities 8 External links

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. 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.

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

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 and Tennessee, 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.

Interstate highways

• Interstate 30
• Interstate 40
• Interstate 55

United States highways

Economy

The state's total gross state product for 1999 was $64 billion placing Arkansas 33^rd in the nation. Its Per Capita Personal Income for 2000 was $22,257, 47^th 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.

Demographics

As of 2000, the state's population was 2,673,400.

See also: List of people from Arkansas

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

Education

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 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

• http://www.state.ar.us Official State Homepage
• origins of the name

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