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Little Rock
Capital of Arkansas, on the Arkansas River
Little Rock sits where the Arkansas River cuts past the last ridges of the Ouachita Mountains and spills onto the flat Delta lowlands — a natural meeting point of upland and plain that fixed the city's site. The name comes from a small rock outcrop on the river bank that early French explorers used as a landmark, distinguishing it from a larger bluff upstream. That crossing made the spot the logical capital of the territory and then the state.
The river divides the metro area, with North Little Rock on the opposite bank, and remains a working waterway linked to the Mississippi. Set almost exactly at the center of Arkansas, where the Ozark-Ouachita highlands give way to the Delta, Little Rock anchors state government and the largest population center in a mostly rural state.