Portal:Arkansas/Intro

Arkansas (/ˈɑːrknˌsɑː/ are-can-saw) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Arkansas was admitted to the Union on 15 June 1836 becoming the 25th US state. On 6 May 1861, the state seceded and was the tenth state to join the Confederate States of America. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern Arkansas Delta lowlands along the Mississippi River. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.

With the exception of Hawaii, Arkansas is the smallest state entirely west of the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River forms most of Arkansas's eastern border, except in Clay and Greene counties where the St. Francis River forms the western boundary of the Missouri Bootheel, and in dozens of places where the current channel of the Mississippi has meandered from where it had last been legally specified. Arkansas shares its southern border with Louisiana, its northern border with Missouri, its eastern border with Tennessee and Mississippi, and its western border with Texas and Oklahoma.

Arkansas is a land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. Northwest Arkansas is part of the Ozark Plateau including the Boston Mountains, to the south are the Ouachita Mountains and these regions are divided by the Arkansas River and the Arkansas River Valley. All of these mountains ranges are part of the U.S. Interior Highlands region, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. The forests of southern Arkansas are known as the Arkansas Timberlands and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Arkansas Delta, with Crowley's Ridge, a small line of hills crossing the flat Delta terrain. All of these diverse regions combine near the center of the state, commonly referred to as Central Arkansas. The highest point in the state is Mount Magazine in the Ouachita Mountains; it rises to 2,753 feet above sea level.

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