Highway 42 is an east–west state highway of 53.69 miles (86.41 km) in Northeast Arkansas. The highways begins in the corn and cotton fields of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain at Highway 37, crosses the Crowley's Ridge and ends in the St. Francis Lowlands. The highway is a rural, two-lane road with relatively low traffic serving a sparsely populated agricultural area of Arkansas. Highway 42 is one of the original state highways created during the 1926 Arkansas state highway numbering, and has remained largely unchanged since bridge construction and an eastward extension in 1938. It is maintained by the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT).

Arkansas Highway 37 is a designation for two state highways in Arkansas. The main segment of 52.40 miles (84.33 km) runs from McCrory to Cord. A short segment of 0.61 miles (0.98 km) runs north in Benton County from U.S. Route 62 to the Missouri state line.