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Welcome to the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas

The CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas is a free, authoritative source of information about the rich history, geography, and culture of Arkansas. It is updated regularly to ensure the people of Arkansas have an accurate and accessible resource to explore our heritage. It will also benefit people outside the state who are seeking information about Arkansas. We invite you to browse our text entries and media galleries to learn more about the people, places, events, legends, and lore of the 25th state. The CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas is a work in progress. We are continually adding new entries, photographs, maps, videos, and audio files, so check back frequently to see what’s new. Search for key words or check out our Arkansas Overview to get started.

Photo Of The Day
Clinton Birthplace

William Jefferson Clinton, the forty-second president of the United States, lived the first four years of his life in his grandparents’ home at 117 South Hervey Street in Hope (Hempstead County). The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site opened to the public as a museum in June 1997.

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This Day in Arkansas History
May 27, 1848

The steamboat Cotton Plant was greeted with an artillery salute when it arrived in Little Rock (Pulaski County). The festivities honored C. C. Danley’s return from the Mexican War, but the Cotton Plant also brought home the body of Chester Ashley. A member of the powerful Conway-Sevier-Johnson political faction, which controlled state politics until the Civil War, he was the third Arkansan elected to the U.S. Senate and was probably the wealthiest Arkansan for much of his life because of his land holdings. Ashley was buried in Mount Holly Cemetery, which he and Roswell Beebe had donated to the city of Little Rock in 1843.

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