Arkansas -- The Natural State (But we don't recycle all that much.)

Big Time Days In American History

On June 15, 1836, Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state.

The Arkansas territory itself was larger than the state. After statehood the leftover area to the west had post offices that continued for some years to use an Arkansas abbreviation in the postmarks, although they were really in the "Indian Country."

Hernando DeSoto became in 1541 the first European to visit the land that would become Arkansas, which had already been occupied by Native Americans for some 11,000 years. Marquette and Joliet followed in 1673 and in 1682 LaSalle claimed possession of the territory in the name of France. The first permanent European settlement in what is now Arkansas was established by Henri DeTonti in 1686 at Arkansas Post. In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory (including Arkansas) from France for $15 million, bringing Arkansas for the first time under the U.S. flag.

In 1819, the Arkansas Territory was organized and Arkansas was admitted to the Union as a state in 1836.

Lake Hamilton

 Arkansas is bounded on the north by Missouri; on the east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from Mississippi and Tennessee; on the south by Louisiana; and on the west by the plains of Oklahoma and Texas. In size, it stands 27th among the states, with an area of 53,187 square miles. Of these, over 600,000 acres are lakes with 9,740 miles of streams.

Main rivers of the state are the Mississippi, Arkansas, White, St. Francis, Red, Ouachita,and their tributaries—all of which drain to the south and southeast. Arkansas has scores of small streams and lakes, and the plateau section is noted for the many springs. Mammoth Spring, in Fulton County near the Missouri line, has a maximum flow of nine million gallons per hour. More than one million gallons of water flow daily from 47 springs at the base of Hot Springs Mountain in Hot Springs National Park, with an average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit.

Though at my place get all of our fresh, tasty drinking water from the cold spring over on Whittington, at the fountain at the base of West Mountain.

--Text and flag above swiped from some Arkansas web site.
--Lake Hamilton as seen from my deck. Photograph courtesy of Contento Ltd.