Arkansas

Arkansas is the only place on Earth where you can dig for real diamonds and keep whatever you find. Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro sits on a 37-acre field above an ancient volcanic crater. People have pulled more than 35,000 diamonds out of that dirt since 1972, including the 40-carat Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever found in the United States.

The state got its name from the Quapaw people. French explorers called them "the Akansas," and it stuck.

The Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage lived here for thousands of years before Hernando de Soto led the first European expedition through in 1541. France claimed the territory and built Arkansas Post in 1686, the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley.

The land came to the U.S. through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Arkansas became the 25th state on June 15, 1836, entering as a slave state. By the Civil War, roughly one in four people in Arkansas were enslaved.

When the war broke out, Arkansas actually voted to stay in the Union at first. But after Lincoln called for troops, the state switched sides.

The Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862 pitted 11,000 Union soldiers against 16,000 Confederates in the northwest corner of the state. The Union won, and the Confederates never seriously threatened Missouri again.

In 1919, white mobs killed an estimated 200 or more Black sharecroppers near Elaine who had organized for fair wages. No white attackers were ever prosecuted.

Then in 1957, nine Black students tried to walk into Little Rock Central High School and were blocked by the Arkansas National Guard. President Eisenhower sent Army troops to escort the Little Rock Nine inside, and the whole nation watched.

You can tour Central High today. It's a National Historic Site, and you'll stand right where those students changed history.

Soak in the thermal waters at Hot Springs National Park, where people have come to bathe since the 1830s. Stroll Bathhouse Row, the same stretch that drew Babe Ruth and Al Capone.

At Crater of Diamonds, rent some tools and spend the day hunting for your own gemstone. Then track down cheese dip and fried catfish, two Arkansas staples nobody here will let you skip.