Are you ready for more fun facts about Arkansas? This time we’ve got some real stunners. You can find facts ranging from size to rice production to miles of rivers. Read on for 12 incredible facts you may not believe.
- Arkansans help each other. Though one of the poorest states in the union, Arkansas is also one of the most generous states. Arkansans donated 6.3% of their discretionary income to various charities in 2011.
Wikimedia/ Win Henderson These neighbors are helping out after a 2009 tornado in Mena.
- Arkansas’s forests could cover the entire country of Switzerland one and a half times.
Wikimedia/ Marco Becerra Arkansas has 18.8 million acres of forested land. Switzerland is only about 10.2 million acres.
- Even though we’re a small state, you could fit the entirety of Greece into Arkansas and have almost enough room left over for Puerto Rico. We’d be happy to take some of those beaches off their hands:
Pexels/ Norbert Mereg Greece has 50,949 square miles. Puerto Rico, 3,459 square miles. Arkansas is 53,179 square miles.
- You could also fill up all of Puerto Rico just with Arkansas farmland. You’d still have enough left to cover Rhode Island, too.
Wikimedia/Andy Pernick Arkansas has 4,973,164 harvested acres.
- It might not look like it on a map because of the irregular shape, but the widest points in Arkansas’s height and width are only separated by 22 miles.
Wikimedia/Rand McNally Arkansas is 239 miles wide and 261 miles long.
- To keep the population density the same, you’d need more than two and and a half times the number of current Arkansas residents to fill up New York City.
Wikipedia/Pacific Coast Highway Arkansas population: just under 3 million. NYC population: 8.4 million.
- On average, Arkansas gets about twice as much precipitation as California. Drought or not, that’s pretty crazy because California is three times bigger than Arkansas.
Pixabay/Obsidian3825
- In 2015, Fort Smith had 73.93 inches of rainfall. The famously rainy Seattle only had 44.83 inches of precipitation.
Flickr/FortSmithNPS Really, Fort Smith got too much rain last year. The Arkansas River flooded.
- Arkansas produces more rice than any other state. Rice production in Arkansas is a $6 billion industry. That means the rice industry brings almost as much money into the state as all of Dillard’s, the Little Rock based national retail chain.
Wikimedia/ Tim McCabe, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
- There are 9,700 miles of streams and rivers in Arkansas. You’d only drive about 2,813 miles if you left from San Francisco, California and arrived in Washington D.C.
Flickr/ NPCA Photos And we know how to use those miles of water, too.
- Arkansas is the Natural State indeed. We’ve got 2.5 million acres of national forest, fifty state parks, seven national scenic byways, and three state scenic byways.
Flickr/Jimmy Emmerson DVM
- Arkansas is home to the first piece of land protected by the United States government for recreational use. First named Hot Springs Reservation, now called Hot Springs National Park, the land was protected before the concept of a National Parks Service was invented.
Flickr/Boston Public Library
Do you know any totally unbelievable facts about Arkansas? Can you stun us with your knowledge? Feel free to shock us in the comments!
Wikimedia/ Win Henderson
These neighbors are helping out after a 2009 tornado in Mena.
Wikimedia/ Marco Becerra
Arkansas has 18.8 million acres of forested land. Switzerland is only about 10.2 million acres.
Pexels/ Norbert Mereg
Greece has 50,949 square miles. Puerto Rico, 3,459 square miles. Arkansas is 53,179 square miles.
Wikimedia/Andy Pernick
Arkansas has 4,973,164 harvested acres.
Wikimedia/Rand McNally
Arkansas is 239 miles wide and 261 miles long.
Wikipedia/Pacific Coast Highway
Arkansas population: just under 3 million. NYC population: 8.4 million.
Pixabay/Obsidian3825
Flickr/FortSmithNPS
Really, Fort Smith got too much rain last year. The Arkansas River flooded.
Wikimedia/ Tim McCabe, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Flickr/ NPCA Photos
And we know how to use those miles of water, too.
Flickr/Jimmy Emmerson DVM
Flickr/Boston Public Library
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