ARKANSAS AS ITS OWN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC

Arkansas’s earliest inhabitants included indigenous hunting-and-gathering peoples whose cultures flourished about 500 A.D.. One of the distinctive features of these communities was their use of bluff shelters for seasonal or other short-term residence. Later peoples left large mounds—markers of sacred spaces, public places, and burial sites—as well as other remains along the Mississippi River.

A Diverse Economy

In the 20th century Arkansas shifted away from its cotton-focused agricultural base to a diverse economy with significant manufacturing and services components. The change began in the 1930s, by which time a vast gulf had emerged between the sharecroppers and other tenant farmers on one end of the social scale and the managers and landlords on the other. (The owners of small farms or businesses constituted another class.) Through the establishment of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, the sharecroppers were able to improve their conditions considerably, as well as influence the national farm policy of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and his successors. Over the next several decades, mechanization of agriculture and the shift from cotton farming to the cultivation of rice and soybeans virtually eliminated the sharecropper—though not the rural poor.

Meanwhile, the effects of the Great Depression (1929–c. 1939) in Arkansas were amplified by several years of drought, forcing many farmworkers to turn fully—and permanently—to other sorts of labour. During the next decade, World War II (1939–45), with its large number of soldiers and defense-related industries, extended changes to the most isolated parts of Arkansas. By the early 21st century, not only had agriculture been eclipsed by the combined total of the state’s diverse service activities as the principal component of the economy, but, like many of its neighbors to the north, the state had become largely urbanized.

Abundance in Natural Resources

Arkansas possesses some of the most beautiful forests and parks in the nation. I mean, there’s a reason it is called the natural state. One can find beautiful lakes in central Arkansas, majestic forests in the Ozarks and sharp cliffs and bluffs along the banks of the Arkansas River.

Arkansas is privileged to have 52 state parks, seven National Park sites and three national forests. Highlights include the aforementioned Ozark National Forest, Hot Springs and the Buffalo National River.

While Arkansas is filled with robust natural sites, it also is a great and prosperous place for business. Walmart, the greatest grocery store in the existence of man, Tyson Foods and Dillard’s were all founded in Arkansas and are all tremendously successful. Slim Chickens, a superior version of Raising Cane’s Chicken, was also founded in Arkansas.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is another reason that Arkansas is so great. One of the premier art museums in the world, Crystal Bridges holds hundreds of famous art pieces and stunning architectural pieces. In Bentonville, Ark., Crystal Bridges also has light features and nature trails. The best part? It’s entirely free.

Conclusion

Arkansas’s multifaceted regional identity has often resulted in the state’s exclusion from academic treatments on the nation’s various regions. Though The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture series published by the University of North Carolina Press adheres to a broad definition of the South that includes Arkansas, the Religion by Region series of AltaMira Press excludes Arkansas from the South proper but instead categorizes it with Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Missouri—a state usually linked to the Midwest—in a region dubbed the “Southern Crossroads.” This tension within the academic community only mirrors a similar tension in the nation at large, where cut-and-dried regional definitions often falter in the face of conflicting identities and histories. Long before increasing migration across the country started calling into question the continuing validity of regional identities, Arkansas was defying overly simplified stereotypes.