Arkansas . . . State 25

The official state flag of Arkansas was chosen in a design contest in 1913. The diamond shapes in the center represent the diamond gemstone, because Arkansas is the only state in the USA where diamonds have been found. The twenty-five white stars around the diamond mean that Arkansas was the twenty-fifth state to join the Union. The top of four stars in the center represents that Arkansas was a member of the Confederate States during the Civil War. The other three stars represent Spain, France and the United States, countries that had earlier ruled the land that includes Arkansas.

Originally part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Arkansas was organized into a territory in 1819 with same northern, eastern and southern borders it shares today. Arkansas was admitted to the United States in 1836 as the 25th state. The name Arkansas is derived from a Quapaw Indian word meaning "downstream people".

Arkansas weather is pleasant and usually never gets extremely cold or hot. On average summer highs are 80 degrees, with winters lows average in the 40s. Rainfall on average is near 50 inches a year and snow does fall in the northwest and west. The growing season ranges from 180 days on the high plateau in the northwest to 240 days in the southeastern part of the state.

The capital and largest city is Little Rock. Arkansas is bordered to the north by Missouri; east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from Mississippi and Tennessee; south by Louisiana; and west by Oklahoma and Texas. Arkansas has approximately 9,750 miles of streams and 453,870 acres are lakes and is known throughout the country for its natural beauty, clear lakes and streams and abundance of natural wildlife. This is the reason Arkansas is known as "The Natural State".

The state produces all crops normally grown in the temperate zone. The major agriculture in the state is poultry and eggs, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, cotton, rice, hogs, milk. The industry food processing, electric equipment, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper products, bromine, vanadium.

There are 75 Counties in the State of Arkansas which vary from the rich Delta farmlands of the Mississippi River valley to the rolling hills and gently sloped mountains of the Ozarks and Ouachitas:

Arkansas - Ashley - Baxter - Benton - Boone - Bradley - Calhoun - Carroll - Chicot - Clark - Clay - Cleburne - Cleveland - Columbia - Conway - Craighead - Crawford - Crittenden - Cross - Dallas - Desha - Drew - Faulkner - Franklin - Fulton - Garland - Grant - Greene - Hempstead - Hot Spring - Howard - Independence - Izard - Jackson - Jefferson - Johnson - Lafayette - Lawrence - Lee - Lincoln - Little - River - Logan - Lonoke - Madison - Marion - Miller - Mississippi - Monroe - Montgomery - Nevada - Newton - Ouachita - Perry - Phillips - Pike - Poinsett - Polk - Pope - Prairie - Pulaski - Randolph - Saline - Scott - Searcy - Sebastian - Sevier - Sharp - St. Francis - Stone - Union - Van Buren - Washington - White - Woodruff - Yell


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