Presidential Visits

Until the second half of the twentieth century, the visit of a president of the United States (or even of a former president) was a historic event in Arkansas. The ease and affordability of travel—and the election of an Arkansas native as president in 1992 and 1996—have made presidential visits less noteworthy. The following chart lists the visits of presidents and former presidents to the state of Arkansas from statehood in 1836 through the year 1990. The occasions when future presidents were in Arkansas, such as Colonel Zachary Taylor’s time in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) from 1841 to 1845, are not listed. President Bill Clinton’s numerous return visits to Arkansas are not included, nor are visits by Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, because of their frequency both during and after their terms of office. One significant event that should be noted, however, was the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. The ceremonies, held on November 18, 2004, involved President George W. Bush and former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and, of course, Bill Clinton. Also, on May 7, 2014, President Barack Obama conducted his first presidential visit to Arkansas in order to survey tornado damage in the Vilonia (Faulkner County) area.

The April 22, 1842, visit by Martin Van Buren is attested to by later accounts, but no contemporaneous newspapers report the event, and so it is marked with an asterisk (*) in the chart below.

DATE	PRESIDENT	YEARS IN OFFICE	LOCATIONS VISITED	EVENT
April 22, 1842*	Martin Van Buren	1837–1841	Columbia (Chicot County)	Passenger on steamboat Nashville, which stopped briefly
April 14 & 15, 1880	Ulysses S. Grant	1869–1877	Little Rock (Pulaski County)	Parade and banquet as part of world tour
April 17, 1891	Benjamin Harrison	1889–1893	Little Rock	Train tour on way to Pacific Coast
October 25, 1905	Theodore Roosevelt	1901–1909	Little Rock	Parade and public meeting
October 24, 1909	William H. Taft	1909–1913	Texarkana (Miller County), Arkadelphia (Clark County), Little Rock	Brief remarks at train stations
October 27, 1909	William H. Taft	1909–1913	Helena (Phillips County)	Speech on waterways
October 10, 1910	Theodore Roosevelt	1901–1909	Hot Springs (Garland County)	Arkansas State Fair
April 20, 1912	Theodore Roosevelt	1901–1909	Fort Smith, Ozark (Franklin County), Clarksville (Johnson County), Russellville (Pope County), Conway (Faulkner County), Argenta (Pulaski County), Carlisle (Lonoke County)	Campaign tour
September 25, 1912	Theodore Roosevelt	1901–1909	Little Rock	Speech on waterways
February 8–9, 1918	William H. Taft	1909–1913	North Little Rock (Pulaski County)	Lectures at Camp Pike
June 10, 1936	Franklin Roosevelt	1933–1945	Hot Springs, Rockport (Hot Spring County), Little Rock	Arkansas State Centennial Celebration
July 9, 1938	Franklin Roosevelt	1933–1945	Booneville (Logan County)	Campaign tour
April 18, 1943	Franklin Roosevelt	1933–1945	North Little Rock	Visit to Camp Robinson
October 6, 1945	Harry S. Truman	1945–1953	Blytheville (Mississippi County)	Visit/stopover on way to Missouri
June 10–11, 1949	Harry S. Truman	1945–1953	Little Rock	Army Division reunion and dedication of War Memorial Park
July 1 & 2, 1952	Harry S. Truman	1945–1953	Little Rock, Norfork (Baxter County), Mountain Home (Baxter County), Flippin (Marion County), Cotter (Baxter County), Batesville (Independence County), Newport (Jackson County)	Dedication of Bull Shoals Dam and Norfork Dam
October 29, 1961	John F. Kennedy	1961–1963	Fort Smith	Ceremony at Old Fort Smith
October 3, 1963	John F. Kennedy	1961–1963	Heber Springs (Cleburne County), Little Rock	Dedication of Greers Ferry Dam, Speech at the State Fair
September 25, 1964	Lyndon B. Johnson	1963–1969	Texarkana	Dedication of memorial at post office
December 6, 1969	Richard M. Nixon	1969–1974	Fayetteville (Washington County)	Arkansas-Texas football game
August 10, 1975	Gerald R. Ford	1974–1977	Fort Smith	Dedication of St. Edward’s Mercy Medical Center
October 22, 1980	Jimmy Carter	1977–1981	Texarkana	Campaign appearance
1983 and following years	Jimmy Carter	1977–1981	Newport, Weiner (Poinsett County)	Duck hunting
March 29, 1984	Gerald R. Ford	1974–1977	Conway	Speech at the University of Central Arkansas
May 12, 1984	Gerald R. Ford	1974–1977	Searcy (White County)	Campaign rally
November 2 & 3, 1984	Ronald Reagan	1981–1989	Little Rock	Political rally
October 27, 1988	Ronald Reagan	1981–1989	Little Rock	Political rally

For additional information:
Gatewood, Willard B., Jr. “Theodore Roosevelt and Arkansas, 1901–1912.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 32 (Spring 1973): 3–24.

Greenwood, Ronald D. “President Franklin D. Roosevelt Visits Hot Springs.” The Record (2019): 7.1–7.10.

Ledbetter, Calvin R., Jr. “Presidential Politics in Arkansas from 1909–1912: The Visits of Taft, Roosevelt, and Wilson.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 53 (Summer 1994): 191–210.

Presidential Pathways in Arkansas. Little Rock: Destination Arkansas, 2004.

Razer, Bob. “President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 Visit to Little Rock.” Pulaski County Historical Review 69 (Summer 2021): 50–56.

Yount, Sheila. “A Sad Irony.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 7, 2024, pp. 1D. 6D. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/oct/06/jfk-stressed-new-south-in-1963-dedication-of/ (accessed October 7, 2024)

Steven Teske
CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Last updated:
October 7, 2024

Questions or corrections?

Comments

Just before the 1972 election, my brother and I attended a George McGovern rally at Adams Field Airport in Little Rock. A few days later, Mr. McGovern listed Arkansas as one of the very few states he thought he had a chance to win. He didn’t. But he probably felt like a rock star at Adams Field.

David Roach Russellville, AR