1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Arkansas
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Arkansas is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Its name is of Siouan derivation from the language of the Osage denoting their related kin, the states diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U. S. Interior Highlands, to the forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. Arkansas is the 29th largest by area and the 33rd most populous of the 50 United States, the capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state, a hub for transportation, business, culture, and government. The northwestern corner of the state, such as the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Area and Fort Smith metropolitan area, is a population, education, the largest city in the eastern part of the state is Jonesboro. The largest city in the part of the state is Pine Bluff. The Territory of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state on June 15,1836, in 1861 Arkansas withdrew from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Upon returning to the Union in 1868, the state would continue to suffer due to its reliance on slavery. White rural interests continued to dominate the politics until the Civil Rights Movement. Arkansas began to diversify its economy following World War II and relies on its service industry, aircraft, poultry, steel, tourism, cotton, and rice. The culture of Arkansas is observable in museums, theaters, novels, television shows, restaurants, wright, and physicist William L. McMillan, who was a pioneer in superconductor research, have all lived in Arkansas. The name Arkansas derives from the root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansa tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains, the word Arkansas itself is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw word, akakaze, meaning land of downriver people or the Sioux word akakaze meaning people of the south wind. In 2007, the legislature passed a non-binding resolution declaring the possessive form of the states name to be Arkansass which has been followed increasingly by the state government. Arkansas borders Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, Oklahoma to the west, Missouri to the north, as well as Tennessee, the United States Census Bureau classifies Arkansas as a southern state, sub-categorized among the West South Central States. The state line along the Mississippi River is indeterminate along much of the border with Mississippi due to these changes. Arkansas can generally be split into two halves, the highlands in the northwest half and the lowlands of the southeastern half, the highlands are part of the Southern Interior Highlands, including The Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains. The southern lowlands include the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Arkansas Delta and this dual split can yield to general regions named northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast, or central Arkansas
3.
Arkansas River Valley
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The Arkansas River Valley is a region in Arkansas defined by the Arkansas River in the western part of the state. The Arkansas River Valley is not formally defined along county boundaries, including all of Logan and Sebastian counties and portions of Conway, Franklin, Perry, Pope, and Yell counties. Most first encounters describe scattered villages and individual farmsteads in the River Valley, unlike the organized towns and groves and orchards encountered in eastern Arkansas. Research at the site has linked artifacts to cave art in a cave on Petit Jean Mountain, as well as establishing links to the Caddo, Osage, hernando de Soto became the first European explorer to enter Arkansas in 1541. His expedition of 600 Spanish explorers searching for gold and riches crossed into Arkansas across the Mississippi River, the expedition traveled to Tanico, an important city somewhere in the River Valley, in September 1542. The following month, the expedition fought with a tribe referred to as the Tula somewhere near Fort Smith and this fighting apparently caused de Soto to turn the expedition back east, leaving the River Valley. Following the war, the Southern economy was in shambles, including Arkansas, the cost of the war effort, loss of human capital, and Confederate currency losing value were serious issues for the South in addition to the destruction of property, infrastructure, and crops. Many parts of Arkansas had descended into lawlessness and violence between whitecapping groups, freedmen, Republicans, and unaffiliated bandits taking advantage of the chaos, indicative of the disarray, Radical Republican Governor Powell Clayton declared martial law in ten counties following reelection in 1868. Although no River Valley counties were subject to the proclamation, Clayton later added four more counties, including one partial-River Valley county. The Klan had limited support, and much of the area was viewed steadily Republican, due to its relatively strong position following the Civil War, the River Valley attracted new settlement throughout Reconstruction. Populations of Austrian Catholics, German Catholics, and German Catholics, some immigrated directly from Europe, but most came from early settlements in the Ohio River Valley. The Lutherans generally immigrated in organized companies, where the Catholics came independently, although some Catholic settlements like Clarksville and these settlements received support from existing immigrant populations in Little Rock and Fort Smith, and groups of Protestant settlers also establishing settlements in the area. Several of the River Valleys small towns were founded by groups, beginning as small clusters of immigrants. Upon arriving in the region, many found only densely forested upland to be the property they could afford. River Valley soil and climate are much less conducive to cultivation than the Arkansas Delta. Eventually, a preference for mixed farming emerged, including potatoes and other garden vegetables, Coal mining was an important industry in the River Valleys early history. Dangerous and demanding, the industry attracted Swiss and German immigrants who were unable to establish productive farms, mining became prominent by 1873, especially around the Altus area. The Swiss and German immigrants found the rolling hills similar to the topography of their homeland, due to the climate, fertile soil and immigrants accustomed to wine with their meals, several wineries were established in the River Valley
4.
Arkansas River
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The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the US states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and it then flows east into the Midwest via Kansas, and finally into the South through Oklahoma and Arkansas. At 1,469 miles, it is the sixth-longest river in the United States, the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi–Missouri system, and its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, Colorado, near Leadville. In 1859, placer gold discovered in the Leadville area brought thousands seeking to strike it rich, the Arkansas Rivers mouth is at Napoleon, Arkansas, and its drainage basin covers nearly 170,000 sq mi. In terms of volume, the river is smaller than the Missouri and Ohio Rivers. The Arkansas from its headwaters to the 100th meridian west formed part of the US-Mexico border from the Adams–Onís Treaty until the Texas Annexation or Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Arkansas has three distinct sections in its long path through central North America. At its headwaters, the Arkansas runs as a steep fast-flowing mountain river through the Rockies in its narrow valley and this section supports extensive whitewater rafting, including The Numbers, Browns Canyon, and the Royal Gorge. At Cañon City, Colorado, the Arkansas River valley widens and flattens markedly, just west of Pueblo, Colorado, the river enters the Great Plains. Through the rest of Colorado, Kansas, and much of Oklahoma, it is a typical Great Plains riverway, with wide, shallow banks subject to seasonal flooding, tributaries include the Cimarron River and the Salt Fork Arkansas River. In eastern Oklahoma the river begins to widen further into a more contained consistent channel, the river valley then expands as it encounters much flatter land beginning just west of Little Rock, Arkansas. It continues eastward across the plains and forests of eastern Arkansas until it flows into the Mississippi River. Important cities along the Arkansas River include Pueblo, Colorado, Garden City, Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Little Rock, Arkansas. The I-40 bridge disaster of May 2002 took place on I-40s crossing of Kerr Reservoir on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. The problems over the possession and use of Arkansas River water by Colorado, while Congress approved the Arkansas River Compact in 1949, the compact did not stop further disputes by the two states over water rights to the river. The Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Basin Compact was created in 1965 to promote mutual consideration and it led to the Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Commission, which was charged with administering the compact and reducing pollution. The compact was approved and implemented by states in 1970, and has been in force since then. Through Oklahoma and Arkansas, dams artificially deepen and widen the river to build it into a navigable body of water. Many nations of Native Americans lived near, or along, the 1, the first Europeans to see the river were members of the Spanish Coronado expedition on June 29,1541
5.
Civilian Conservation Corps
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The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. Originally for young men ages 18–25, it was expanded to young men ages 17–28. Robert Fechner was the head of the agency, the CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men, and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. At the same time, it implemented a general natural resource conservation program in every state, maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Over the course of its nine years in operation,3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them shelter, clothing. The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs, principal benefits of an individuals enrollment in the CCC included improved physical condition, heightened morale, and increased employability. The CCC operated separate programs for veterans and Native Americans, approximately 15,000 Native Americans participated in the program, helping them weather the Great Depression. Despite its popular support, the CCC was never a permanent agency and it depended on emergency and temporary Congressional legislation and funding to operate. By 1942, with World War II and the draft in operation, the need for work relief declined, as governor of New York, Roosevelt had run a similar program on a much smaller scale. He promised this law would provide 250,000 young men with meals, housing, uniforms, the Emergency Conservation Work Act was introduced to Congress the same day and enacted by voice vote on March 31. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6101 on April 5,1933 which established the CCC organization and appointed a director, Robert Fechner, the organization and administration of the CCC was a new experiment in operations for a federal government agency. A CCC Advisory Council was composed of a representative each of the supervising departments. In addition, the Office of Education and Veterans Administration participated in the program, to end the opposition from labor unions Roosevelt chose Robert Fechner, vice president of the American Machinists Union, as director of the corps. William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, was taken to the first camp to demonstrate that there would be no job training involved beyond simple manual labor. Reserve officers from the U. S. Army were in charge of the camps, General Douglas MacArthur was placed in charge of the program but said that the number of Army officers and soldiers assigned to the camps was affecting the readiness of the Regular Army. But the Army also found benefits in the program. When the draft began in 1940, the policy was to make CCC alumni corporals, CCC also provided command experience to Organized Reserve Corps officers. Through the CCC, the Regular Army could assess the performance of both Regular and Reserve Officers
6.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
