A Few Interesting Facts about Arkansas
Facts about Arkansas Geography
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.
The state is about equally divided between lowlands and highlands, with the Gulf Coastal Plain on the south, the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain (Delta and Grand Prairie) on the east and the Interior Highlands on the west and north. Elevations in the lowlands range from 54 feet above sea level in the south to 683 feet above sea level in the northeast. The hill section is divided into two areas of nearly equal size. To the north are the Ozark plateaus, and to the south is the Ouachita province. Between them flows the Arkansas River, through a wide valley included in the Ouachita subdivision. In this Arkansas River Valley stand the highest and most impressive peaks of the state—Nebo, Petit Jean and Magazine. Petit Jean is cleft by a canyon with a 75-foot waterfall, and Mount Magazine has the highest elevation in the state, 2,753 feet above sea level.
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.
Man-made lakes of major proportions have been created by the installation of flood control or power dams at Norfork, Bull Shoals, Blue Mountain, Nimrod, Catherine-Hamilton-Ouachita, Greeson, Beaver, Dardanelle, Greers Ferry, Millwood, DeGray, and Maumelle.
Arkansas Facts about Natural Resources
Arkansas possesses a wide variety of minerals, with annual production valued in excess of $1,000,000,000. Petroleum, natural gas, and bromine, in that order, are the top three minerals produced. Arkansas leads the nation in production of bauxite, providing over 80% of this valuable ore from which aluminum is made. Arkansas also ranks first in production of bromine, accounting for about one-half of the world's output, and in silica stone, a natural abrasive. Murfreesboro, Arkansas, is the home of the only diamond mine open to the public in the world.
Other mineral deposits include barite, ceramic clay, chalk, gypsum, glass sand, limestone, manganese, novaculite, nepheline syenite, titanium, zinc, tripoli, vanadium, and coal.
Arkansas has 17.2 million acres of forest land. The forests are divided into three principal classifications: the loblolly, short-leaf pine of the West Gulf Coastal Plain and Ouachita Mountains; the mixed short-leaf hardwoods of the Ozark Mountains; and the bottomland hardwoods of the alluvial plains of eastern Arkansas. Three national forests, the Ozark, St. Francis, and Ouachita have a total of 2,648,825 acres (1,572,879 in Ouachita, 22,600 in St. Francis, and 1,055,000 in Ozark).
