Aerial.America.S01E07.Arkansas
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00:00Perhaps no other state is more closely entwined with the destiny of a young America.
00:07A land of ancient forests and mighty rivers that forged a turbulent path to the west.
00:14Arkansas, the natural state, where a cultural gumbo of Americans settled amid pristine lakes and wild mountains.
00:25A land of sultry song and gospel music.
00:30Of desperadoes and hanging judges.
00:34Scene of the landmark battle for school desegregation.
00:39And home to a modern-day president.
00:44Arkansas, a bridge from America's past to her present.
00:49To see it by air is a spectacular journey down the mighty Mississippi, the old man river of song,
00:56flowing past fertile fields of cotton and up into the shadows of backwoods hollows.
01:02Aerial Arkansas is a journey through America's wild interior,
01:07where a young country began its destiny to explore the west and become one of the greatest nations on earth.
01:19Music
01:46Music
01:57The Mississippi River defines Arkansas' eastern border,
02:01just as sharply as it shaped much of the state's and the nation's history.
02:06This is the legendary Old Man River,
02:10immortalized in song by Oscar Hammerstein in the musical Show Boat.
02:18The river of brawling boatmen and riverboat gamblers.
02:22Here, the good times roll along the river, the home of the Delta Blues.
02:28Music
02:40Nestled between a ridge and the Mississippi River lies the port town of Helena, founded in 1833.
02:50At the turn of the 20th century, this graceful town captured the imagination of Mark Twain
02:56during his travels along the Mississippi.
03:01He described it as a town with one of the prettiest situations along the river.
03:06Music
03:16The Pillow House, home to five generations of the Pillow family,
03:21is one of the few remaining traces of the town Twain found so appealing.
03:29Distinguished by its turrets and towers,
03:32it's one of the finest remaining examples of Queen Anne architecture in the South.
03:40Built in 1896, it was designed by George Barber,
03:44one of the most popular architects of the Victorian era.
03:51Music
04:00In the 1950s, blacks from the Deep South came to Helena seeking work
04:05and brought the sultry sound of the blues with them.
04:09Music
04:25But further south, the oxbow bends of the Mississippi and its tributaries,
04:30the U-shaped patterns etching their ever-changing course,
04:34are evidence of the river's darker side, floods.
04:39The Great Flood of 1927 was the most destructive in Arkansas history.
04:456,600 square miles of Arkansas, including all this land,
04:49was once swamped underwater up to 30 feet deep.
04:54The devastation and political fallout was so great
04:57that it changed the way the nation viewed natural disasters,
05:01echoing Hurricane Katrina.
05:03Music
05:06It was after the catastrophic flood of 1927
05:09that people began to look to the federal government for help after natural disasters.
05:14Music
05:22Outside the hum of the cities, the Mississippi is wild, almost primeval.
05:28Over the millennia, the river has cut many trails across the land.
05:33Artifacts reveal that Native Americans once lived along the river's ancient paths,
05:39some 13,000 years ago.
05:44The most tangible vestige of early Indian culture lies here in Toltec State Park.
05:50These are just two of a mysterious series of 18 platform mounds,
05:55of which only five are still visible.
06:01Built in 650 by Indians known as the Plum Bayou people,
06:05the mounds are in perfect alignment with the fall and spring equinoxes.
06:11It's thought they were used as some type of measuring system.
06:16But the greatest mystery of the mounds may be why,
06:20after four centuries, they were suddenly abandoned.
06:24In 1050, the Plum Bayou people simply disappeared,
06:29leaving no clues as to why they left or where they went.
06:45Before the arrival of European explorers in the 16th century,
06:49over 70,000 Native Americans thrived in settlements throughout Arkansas.
06:55It was in 1541, near the junction of the Mississippi and the Arkansas River,
07:01that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto made his legendary first encounter with the Indians.
07:12As the story goes, an Indian leader the Spanish named Aquito
07:16arrived to meet de Soto and his army with a fleet of 200 canoes.
07:22Alarmed at the size of the Native force,
07:25the Spaniards fired their crossbows and killed five or six Indians.
07:31It was an ominous beginning, with terrible consequences to come.
07:37De Soto's army spent the next two years exploring Arkansas,
07:41leaving terrible destruction in its wake.
07:45In just two years, Spanish weapons and diseases wiped out 90% of the Indian population,
07:52an apocalypse from which they never fully recovered.
08:01By the time the first pioneers arrived in Arkansas,
08:04they found a land rich in game and promise.
08:07With little competition for land, its Native people were all but gone.
08:15King Cotton
08:26King Cotton, the crop that shaped the South,
08:29no longer rules Arkansas' Mississippi Valley.
08:33Today, it's the rice fields, weaving artistic trails through the earth,
08:38that dominate the landscape.
08:42The cotton fields are still there,
08:45but it's the lattice terraces of rice, or rice levees,
08:49as they're known in Arkansas, that cover the valley.
08:53The levees are curved to follow the natural contour and elevation of the land.
08:58The curve controls the flow of water through the fields.
09:04Today, Arkansas is the leading rice-producing state in the country,
09:09but from the air, the curving fields resemble modern art more than crops.
09:28Somewhere under this vast canopy of trees is a simple stone marker.
09:34Although easily overlooked, it marks one of the most pivotal events in U.S. history,
09:40the Louisiana Purchase.
09:44In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson made one of the best deals of all time
09:50when he bought the vast Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte of France.
09:56It sold for the bargain price of $15 million.
10:04The Louisiana Territory
10:13Inside this swampland is the spot where surveyors began the monumental task
10:18of mapping the entire Louisiana Territory,
10:22a vast wilderness that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.
10:28Napoleon's comment on the sale proved prophetic.
10:32He said,
10:33This forever affirms the power of the United States.
10:37I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride.
10:47The new lands doubled the size of the fledgling nation and helped shape its destiny.
10:58Johnny Cash
11:06Moving west to central Arkansas is the birthplace of Johnny Cash.
11:12In the lyrics to Arkansas Loving Man,
11:15Cash tells the story of his family's move to Arkansas when he was three.
11:19In search of a better life, the family followed his father Ray,
11:24a farmer, hobo, and odd-job laborer, and landed in Dias.
11:30Here Johnny flourished, working in the fields by day,
11:34listening to blues and country stations on the radio at night.
11:39He began composing songs at the age of 12 and never stopped.
11:45Moving West
11:52Moving west into southwestern Arkansas is a journey over small towns
11:57with charming names like Star City, Smackover, and Delight.
12:04Just ahead is one of the strangest destinations in North America.
12:09It may look like a simple gray dirt field,
12:12but this is a billion-year-old diamond mine.
12:17The crater of Diamond State Park is a very real field of dreams.
12:24It's believed to be the only place on the planet
12:27where anyone can dig for diamonds with their own hands
12:32and keep any they find.
12:35It all started 95 million years ago
12:38when a crack in the Earth's crust created a volcanic pipe
12:42that brought diamonds to the surface.
12:46In 1906, a farmer discovered diamonds and ignited a mining rush.
12:55Since then, the fields have produced the most perfect diamond
12:58ever certified by the American Gem Society
13:02and the largest diamond ever found in America.
13:05The Uncle Sam, weighing in at a whopping 40 carats.
13:20Following the path of the Red River Southwest
13:23leads to another turbulent chapter in Arkansas history.
13:28In 1819, a bitter border dispute between Spain and the United States
13:33over the Red River nearly ended in war.
13:37For years, Arkansas' border was the international boundary
13:41between the United States and Spain,
13:44much of it defined by the Red River.
13:48Both the United States and Spain claimed the land north of the river.
13:53Spain's refusal to give up its claim
13:55effectively stopped President Thomas Jefferson's
13:58southern exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.
14:02Thus, all the glory went to those who led the northern exploration,
14:07the famous Lewis and Clark.
14:19Today, Route 30 crosses the heart of Arkansas' coastal plain,
14:25following an ancient Indian path known as the Southwest Trail.
14:29Above the trail are the rugged, rocky forests of the Highlands.
14:33Flat, fertile plains lie below.
14:38The oldest part of the trail follows the eastern edge
14:41of the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains,
14:44skirting hills, swamps, and rivers.
14:47Here lies the small historic town of Washington,
14:51where orderly rows of white picket fences
14:54belied the town's colorful past.
14:58Here, Davy Crockett told tales at the tavern,
15:02Sam Houston planned the Texas Revolution,
15:05and the Bowie knife was created.
15:10In the early 19th century,
15:12every frontiersman carried a long knife for skin and game,
15:15and for self-defense.
15:19So when knife fighter James Bowie needed a new knife,
15:22he went to James Black, the best blacksmith in town.
15:27When Bowie was attacked by three well-armed desperados,
15:30he drew his new knife,
15:32killing all three and decapitating two of them.
15:38Newspapers across the country published all the lurid details,
15:42and Black's Bowie knife became famous.
15:45Although locally, it's known as an Arkansas toothpick.
15:51Just miles east of Washington are two humble but notable towns
15:55that shaped the early lives of a poet and a president.
16:01For most of the 20th century,
16:03watermelon farms dotted the land around the little town of Hope.
16:07But Hurricane Katrina changed all that.
16:11Today, the landscape is swallowed by a sea of trailers,
16:1520,000 mobile homes,
16:17meant to provide temporary housing for flood victims
16:20as far away as New Orleans.
16:22Many of them were never used.
16:28But Hope's permanent claim to fame
16:30is its status as the birthplace of President Bill Clinton.
16:34In this house on Hervey Street,
16:36William Jefferson Clinton lived the first four years of his life
16:40at his grandparents' home.
16:42His mother, who was a woman,
16:45His mother, Virginia Cassidy Blythe,
16:47went to live with him after the death of her husband,
16:50William Jefferson Blythe III,
16:52while she was still expecting their only child.
16:57From this dusty little town of just 5,000,
17:00where he won the local Most Beautiful Baby competition,
17:03Bill Clinton went on to become Arkansas' youngest governor
17:07at the age of 32,
17:09then rose to lead his nation
17:13as the 42nd President of the United States.
17:22Just 20 miles away from Hope is the rural town of Stamps,
17:26the childhood home of poet Maya Angelou.
17:31In her autobiography,
17:33Angelou writes of her train journey
17:35from California to Stamps in the 1930s.
17:38She was just three years old,
17:40traveling in the care of her four-year-old brother.
17:45Once they reached the segregated South, things looked up.
17:48Angelou wrote,
17:50As Negro passengers, who always traveled with loaded lunchboxes,
17:54felt sorry for the poor little motherless darlings,
17:57and plied us with cold fried chicken and potato salad.
18:05Looking back on the journey,
18:07Angelou realized she had been part of a cross-country migration
18:11of thousands of frightened black children
18:13traveling alone to their newly affluent parents in northern cities,
18:17or back to grandmothers in Southern towns
18:20when the North reneged on its economic promise.
18:26Angelou says it was here, in Stamps,
18:29that she first encountered Southern bigotry,
18:32and here that her faith and activism began.
18:38In the heart of the Ouachita Mountains,
18:41surrounded by miles of pine, oak, and hickory forest,
18:45lies the town of Hot Springs.
18:48What looks like a common Southern town
18:51is a truly special place,
18:53where underground springs form a kind of magical pulse.
18:58Here, hot water springs to the surface
19:01from a fault deep in the Earth's crust,
19:04a phenomenon that gave the town its name.
19:09It's a place of stunning natural beauty,
19:12and a somewhat shady past.
19:15For centuries, this misty valley was revered by Native Americans.
19:20They were the first to bathe in the geothermal springs,
19:23and considered it hallowed ground.
19:28By the mid-18th century,
19:30By the mid-18th century,
19:32the fledgling village was known as Thermopolis.
19:38Today, the spring waters are piped into the elegant spas
19:41that make up Bathhouse Row.
19:44The bathhouses were built in the late 1800s,
19:47when Hot Springs began to attract the nation's rich and famous.
19:53They bathed at the Buckstaff, Lamar, and Fordyce bathhouses.
20:01They played the ponies at the Oak Lawn racetrack,
20:06and gambled at the casinos.
20:10By the 1930s, Hot Springs had played host
20:13to every notable mobster in the nation.
20:16Al Capone kept a suite year-round here,
20:19in the luxurious Arlington Hotel,
20:22and allegedly exported Hot Springs' moonshine
20:25to his Chicago night spots.
20:29And Hot Springs has a modern claim to fame,
20:32in the form of its favorite son, Bill Clinton,
20:35who went to school in the town.
20:44Today, Hot Springs also attracts visitors
20:47to three spectacular lakes in the area.
20:51Here, high-priced waterfront homes
20:54share hundreds of miles of shoreline,
20:56with state parks, hiking trails, and pristine forest.
21:04Just before Bill Clinton entered Hot Springs High School,
21:07some of the darkest days in Arkansas history
21:10were about to take place in the state capital, Little Rock.
21:19In 1957, Little Rock High School became an international symbol
21:23of America's violent resistance to desegregation.
21:28In defiance of a Supreme Court decision
21:31ordering the desegregation of America's public schools,
21:34the governor of Arkansas called out the National Guard
21:37to prevent nine African-American students
21:40from entering Little Rock High School.
21:44Turned back to the street,
21:46the students faced a throng of jeering, threatening whites.
21:54It would take an order from the President of the United States,
21:57and the U.S. Army,
21:59to enforce the law of the land in Arkansas.
22:08Today, Little Rock High School, now known as Central High School,
22:12is fully integrated.
22:14Fifty-four percent black,
22:16fifty-four percent white,
22:18Now known as Central High School, is fully integrated.
22:21Fifty-four percent black,
22:23and forty-three percent white.
22:34Along the Little Rock skyline,
22:36a familiar building seems out of place.
22:42The city has the only replica of the U.S. Capitol building
22:45in the United States.
22:47It's used as the Arkansas Capitol building.
22:56Long before Little Rock became capital of the state of Arkansas,
22:59it started out as a riverfront town,
23:02prospering with the growth of traffic along the Arkansas River in the 1800s.
23:12Businesses grew up along the waterfront,
23:15but so did brothels, saloons, and gambling joints.
23:20Soon some areas had earned the names Fighting Alley and Hell's Half Acre.
23:30Today, the river market area still bustles,
23:33in part due to the construction of the Clinton Presidential Library.
23:39The library sits in a 30-acre park,
23:42which replaces an industrial site of old warehouses and vacant space.
23:50It represents President Clinton's bridge to the 21st century,
23:54symbolizing openness and accessibility.
23:58But at $160 million,
24:01critics complain about the size and enormous cost of the monument to Clinton.
24:27Northwest of Little Rock loom the mountains
24:30of the million-acre Ozark National Forest,
24:33a sea of lush green plateaus,
24:36riddled with faults, cracks, and rivers.
24:40Here, man and nature meet in splendid isolation.
24:58The sheer slopes of the Boston Mountains
25:01drop down to the Buffalo National River
25:04and a protected wilderness of 36,000 acres of rugged high country.
25:10No mechanized vehicles are allowed.
25:13The land is only accessible by foot, horseback, or canoe.
25:19And when fog and mist descend upon the river,
25:22the waters take on an air of mystery.
25:25The Buffalo River was the first river
25:28ever to be designated as a national river
25:31by an act of Congress in 1972.
25:34As such, it is protected from dams and obstructions
25:37that would disrupt the character of the river
25:40and the natural land and life that flourish here.
25:45The deeper runs of the river
25:48The deeper runs of the Buffalo
25:51are bounded by forests of oak and hickory.
25:54The lower wilderness area is rugged high country,
25:57full of hollows and streams.
26:00Here, the Buffalo flows down to meet the White River,
26:03just south of Bull Shoals Lake.
26:07They meet in a 45,000-acre fishing mecca
26:10known for rainbow and brown trout,
26:13catfish, and bream.
26:16Deep in the Ozark Mountains
26:19lie what was once the town
26:22of Marble Falls' biggest attractions.
26:28In 1940, the town was home to
26:31the first-ever National Geographic map
26:34of the Ozark Mountains.
26:38The map was designed by
26:43In 1968,
26:46Dogpatch USA opened here,
26:49a theme park based on the characters
26:52and locations in Al Cap's popular
26:55Lil' Abner comic strip.
26:59At the time, hillbilly culture
27:02was in its heyday.
27:05The Beverly Hillbillies drew big TV audiences,
27:08and the Lil' Abner comic strip
27:11was one of them.
27:14But after just a few years,
27:17the park fell on hard times,
27:20a victim of a troubled economy
27:23and the demise of the Lil' Abner comic strip.
27:26Today, the defunct park holds hardly a trace
27:29of the town where Daisy Mae
27:32pined for Lil' Abner.
27:36After the park closed in 1993,
27:39the town, which had changed its name
27:42to Dogpatch to promote the park,
27:45changed it back to Marble Falls.
27:52High in the Ozarks,
27:55built into the sides of two mountains,
27:58sits the village of Eureka Springs.
28:01The town's good fortunes began
28:04in the early 1900s,
28:07when the healing waters of the Ozarks
28:10attracted the well-to-do from across the country
28:13who came seeking cures for their ailments.
28:16They stayed at the luxurious
28:19Crescent Hotel and Spa, built in 1886.
28:22In the 1930s,
28:25the Crescent fell on hard times
28:28and was bought by a charlatan
28:32But the fraud was exposed,
28:35and today, the Crescent once again
28:38hosts guests in style.
28:41Perched between the mountains,
28:44Eureka Springs is crossed by a maze
28:47of switchback roads and stairways.
28:50Even its historic downtown
28:53moves at the pace of another age.
28:56It doesn't have a single traffic light.
28:59One of the more controversial sites at Eureka Springs,
29:02and one of the hardest to miss,
29:05is the mountaintop statue of the Christ of the Ozarks.
29:08Built in 1966,
29:11the white mortar statue of Jesus Christ
29:14stands seven stories high,
29:17with a 15-foot long face.
29:20The arms span 65 feet from fingertip to fingertip
29:23and suggest a crucifixion.
29:26Built completely by hand,
29:29the two-million-pound statue
29:32is anchored in a steel and concrete foundation.
29:35It was constructed to withstand winds
29:38of 500 miles an hour
29:41and has a two-foot rectangle
29:44in the top of the head for pressure equalization
29:47in case of a passing tornado.
29:50On a clear day,
29:54the statue was built by the wife of Gerald Smith,
29:57an anti-Semitic minister of the 1930s.
30:00Today it serves as the Smith's gravesite,
30:03as well as a stage for theatrical passion plays
30:06and a Bible museum.
30:09The statue has become a source of controversy
30:12in and outside of Eureka Springs.
30:15Nonetheless, Christ of the Ozarks
30:18appears here to stay.
30:24Due west of Eureka Springs,
30:27convoys of semi-tractor trailers
30:30flow out of the small but very prosperous town
30:33of Bentonville.
30:36It's home to the biggest retailer in the world,
30:39Walmart.
30:42Despite its humble headquarters,
30:45Walmart is the largest private employer in the world
30:48and the world's largest public corporation.
30:52With revenues of $387 billion a year.
31:01In downtown Bentonville
31:04is Walton's original 5 and 10 cent store,
31:07now almost lost amongst its larger neighbors.
31:10But Sam Walton had the last laugh.
31:13He went on to become the richest man in America.
31:16While Sam has passed on,
31:19folks still talk about the friendly down-to-earth mogul
31:22who would stop his pickup to chat with just about anyone.
31:25Evidence they say that nice folks can finish first.
31:47Moving south through the West Ozarks
31:50was a treacherous journey in the 1800s.
31:55Before the famous Butterfield Run stagecoach line started up,
31:58the roads were so poor
32:01that oxen were the only transport.
32:04Horses lacked the stamina
32:07and mules were still scarce in the area.
32:12Today, the city of Fayetteville,
32:15born along the stagecoach line,
32:18is the third most populous in the state.
32:21It ranks 8th on Forbes Magazine's
32:24Top 10 Best Places in America for Business and Careers.
32:29But Fayetteville's most dramatic history
32:32is a saga of the changing fortunes of war.
32:36During the Civil War,
32:39its strategic location as a crossroads in northeastern Arkansas
32:42was used for both the Union and Confederate armies,
32:45and the town survived a dizzying number of occupations by both sides.
32:53Two bloody battles stand out in the struggle for the city.
32:58The Battle of Pea Ridge took place here in March 1862.
33:04One of the 26,000 soldiers who fought on these fields
33:07was Union Army Private Vincent Holman.
33:11He described the carnage of the battle in his diary.
33:15I am still in camp, waiting on the boys that is wounded.
33:19There is any amount of legs, arms, hands lying around.
33:24The doctors are taking off arms and legs and hands every day.
33:29I hope to God that I won't have to witness the same again.
33:40The Union Army prevailed in the end,
33:43defeating the Confederates at Elkhorn Tavern.
33:46This is a replica of the original building.
33:55Fayetteville had barely recovered from Pea Ridge
33:58when another major battle erupted at Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862.
34:05The sides were evenly matched.
34:08With 12,000 troops, the Union Army about 10,000.
34:14And both armies included troops from the Cherokee and Creek nations.
34:18The reason? An early federal government deal that split the Indian homelands.
34:25The Civil War exploited the conflict,
34:28with Cherokee fighting on both Union and Confederate sides.
34:32Both sides suffered staggering losses.
34:35In just one day of fighting, there were 2,700 casualties.
34:41It was likely the bloodiest in Arkansas' history.
34:56Today, Fayetteville is nationally known as the home of the University of Arkansas.
35:00When the University of Arkansas opened in 1871,
35:03it scandalized many state elders by admitting women.
35:09In 1948, it was also the first major southern public university
35:12to admit an African American student without litigation.
35:19Today, 18,000 students attend the school that began on a frontier farm.
35:24Their loyal fans of the school's football team are still there.
35:29The football team, the Razorbacks,
35:32named for the wild Razorback hogs native to the area.
35:37According to school lore, the team got the name in 1909,
35:40when the football coach told a crowd
35:43that the team had performed like a wild band of Razorback hogs.
35:49Known for its ridged back and tenacious fighting,
35:52the Razorback had long been associated with the backwoods of Arkansas.
35:56The students loved the comparison,
35:58and the wild hog became the official university mascot.
36:07The Western Ozarks, home to wild hogs, clashing armies,
36:10and some of the most notorious desperados on the American frontier.
36:19In the 1930s, the backroads of the Ozarks were prime escape routes
36:23for the outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
36:28Before there was an FBI, criminals could commit crimes
36:31and then race across the state border without fear of being chased by police.
36:37Tearing along the backroads in cars similar to this,
36:40the Barrow Gang, as they were known,
36:43moved in a circle skirting the edges of five states,
36:46fleeing into the Ozarks between the bank holdups and kidnappings that made them famous.
36:53The gang's most serious crime, murder,
36:56took place just north of the town of Alma on Highway 71.
37:01Here, the gang mortally wounded a state marshal in a shootout.
37:05Less than a year later,
37:08Bonnie and Clyde would die in a shootout as well.
37:12Fort Smith, also known as Bell Point
37:15for its site at the junction of the Arkansas and Pato Rivers,
37:18began as a Western Frontier military post in 1817.
37:24The present-day city of Fort Smith,
37:27on the border of Oklahoma,
37:30was once a military base,
37:33but it was no longer a military base.
37:37The present-day city of Fort Smith, on the border of Oklahoma,
37:40bears little resemblance to the wild west town
37:43it once was in the 1800s,
37:46but traces of its turbulent past still stand.
37:51Overlooking the Arkansas River
37:54lie the remains of the very first Fort Smith,
37:57from which the town takes its name.
38:00Fort Smith began as an outpost on the Western Frontier.
38:04Justice was meted out harsh and swift.
38:09This is a replica of the famed gallows
38:12where the infamous hangin' Judge Isaac Parker
38:15sent over 80 men to die.
38:20The barracks hold the early frontier jail,
38:23known as Hell on the Border.
38:26It serves as a tribute to the federal marshals and deputies
38:29who rode for Judge Parker
38:32to entertain the seemingly untameable Arkansas Frontier.
38:51Another vestige of the city's colorful past
38:54is the Visitor's Center,
38:57housed with grace and uncommon honesty
39:00belongs to Fort Smith's most elegant brothel,
39:03Miss Laura's,
39:06one of the few, if not the only, former bordello
39:09listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
39:12When the ambitious young Miss Laura
39:15opened her elegant Front Street bordello,
39:18her mansion housed the best girls in town
39:21and became Fort Smith's premier brothel.
39:24Many of the girls would marry and become matriarchs
39:28While most prostitutes lived in truly appalling conditions,
39:31some historians argue that some of these women
39:34helped to civilize the wilderness
39:37far more than most accounts would ever record.
39:47Moving east, the barracks of historic Fort Chaffee appear.
39:51A key military training post
39:54from the early days of World War II.
39:57Today, the base is used mainly for National Guard training
40:00and often to process thousands of hurricane refugees
40:03from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
40:09But for Elvis fans,
40:12Fort Chaffee will forever be known
40:15as the place in 1958 where Elvis Presley
40:18was inducted into the U.S. Army.
40:21Here in a local barbershop,
40:24Presley had his rock and roll locks
40:27shorn in favor of a military haircut.
40:31Because Fort Chaffee still retains its World War II look,
40:34today it's a favorite location
40:37for period Hollywood movies.
40:40Both Biloxi Blues and A Soldier's Story were filmed here.
40:49Heading further east,
40:52it's a short trip from World War II
40:55to the nuclear age.
40:58Just eight miles.
41:06Here is Arkansas' only nuclear power plant,
41:09Nuclear One.
41:18Built on Lake Dardanelle in 1974,
41:21it's licensed to operate until 2034.
41:30Although the plant provides more than one quarter
41:33of the state's electricity, it comes at a cost.
41:38Shortly after the terrorist attack
41:41on New York's Twin Towers,
41:44Arkansas' governor activated the National Guard
41:47after the plant's owner, the Energy Company,
41:50asked for help.
42:01Pushing east,
42:04the nuclear age gives way to a simpler time
42:07on the Arkansas River
42:10and some old-fashioned Arkansas humor.
42:13Where else could you ask for directions
42:16between Pickle's Gap and Toad Suck?
42:19They're both real place names
42:22and the stories of how Toad Suck
42:25and Old Keel Boatman's Stop got its name are legendary,
42:28all involving the copious consumption
42:31of moonshine.
42:34One story goes that boatmen would stop
42:37for a rest at an eddy in the river,
42:40pull out their jugs and suck up whiskey like toads
42:43or have themselves a regular toad suck.
42:46Another story says
42:49that folks would gather by the river on a Saturday night
42:52to gamble and suck up whiskey until they swelled up like toads.
43:14Just a short way from Toad Suck,
43:17we make our last stop
43:20to visit the ancient past
43:23and view the Arkansas River from Petty John Mountain.
43:26The mountain was once home to Native Americans
43:29who lived here over a thousand years ago.
43:36They were nomads,
43:39living before the invention of the bow and arrow,
43:42with spears.
43:45Yet the cave paintings they made,
43:48using minerals from nearby rocks,
43:51have lasted a thousand years,
43:54their passage recorded on the ancient stone of Arkansas.
43:59The legend of how Petty John got its name
44:02is a romantic tale.
44:05As the story goes,
44:08in the 16th century,
44:11Petty John disguised herself as a cabin boy
44:14in order to follow her beloved to the New World.
44:18Because of her small size,
44:21the sailors nicknamed her Petty Jean,
44:24French for Little John.
44:28On arriving in Arkansas,
44:31she revealed her true identity
44:34and was reunited with her beloved.
44:37But their happiness was short-lived,
44:40as Petty Jean died soon after
44:43and was buried atop the mountain
44:46now called Petty John.
44:59Aerial Arkansas,
45:02a stunning journey through time
45:06filled with notorious desperados
45:09tamed over time.
45:12A land of a great river,
45:15great battles and great promise
45:18that gave birth to artists like Johnny Cash,
45:21Maya Angelou,
45:24and a president.
45:27Arkansas, nicknamed the Natural State,
45:30is still a land of wild rivers and vast wilderness
45:33where the wonders of nature abound.
46:04For more UN videos visit www.un.org
46:07And don't forget to like, share and subscribe!