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 .
