ARArkansas State Symbols

Arkansas is the only state whose flag is built around a diamond, and the reason is literal rather than decorative. Diamonds were found in a volcanic pipe near Murfreesboro in 1906, making Arkansas the only state in the Union to produce them, and when a flag was designed seven years later the shape went straight onto it. The site is now Crater of Diamonds State Park, where visitors dig their own and keep whatever they find. The diamond is also the official state gem, adopted in 1967.

Official state symbols

The apple blossom is the oldest of these, chosen in 1901 when northwest Arkansas around Bentonville and Rogers was one of the country's major apple-growing regions. The Natural State is the newest nickname in a long line: Arkansas has also marketed itself as the Land of Opportunity and, in the 1920s, the Wonder State.

What is on the Arkansas state flag

A red field, a large white diamond outlined in blue, and twenty-five white stars set into that blue border because Arkansas was the twenty-fifth state admitted to the Union. Inside the diamond the word ARKANSAS runs across the middle in blue capitals, with one star above it and three below.

The three stars below the word carry two meanings at once: Spain, France and the United States, the three nations that governed the land, and Arkansas as the third state carved out of the Louisiana Purchase. The single star above the word was added by the legislature in 1923 to commemorate the Confederacy. The design came from Willie Kavanaugh Hocker, a schoolteacher from Wabbaseka who entered a 1912 contest run by the Pierre Menard chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to supply a flag for the battleship USS Arkansas. Hocker submitted the diamond and the stars; the selection committee added the state's name. The legislature adopted the result in 1913.

The Arkansas state seal

The seal's design dates to 1864 and was amended in 1907. At its center a bald eagle holds an olive branch and a bundle of arrows in its talons and a scroll in its beak reading Regnat Populus. Across the eagle's breast is a shield divided into a steamboat, a beehive, a plow and a sheaf of wheat, standing for river commerce, industry and farming. Above the eagle floats the Goddess of Liberty holding a wreath, encircled by stars. The Angel of Mercy stands to the left and the Sword of Justice to the right.

The 1907 change was purely grammatical and worth knowing if you are quoting the motto. The older seal read Regnant Populi, a plural construction. The legislature corrected it to the singular Regnat Populus, which is the form used today.

Symbols that surprise people

• One plant is both the state fruit and the state vegetable. The South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato was given both titles in a single 1987 act, sidestepping the botanical argument entirely.
• Arkansas has four official songs. A 1987 law designated "Arkansas" as the state anthem, "Oh, Arkansas" and "Arkansas (You Run Deep in Me)" as state songs, and "The Arkansas Traveler" as the state historical song.
• The state dinosaur is named after a farmer. Joe B. Friday found fossil foot bones on his land in Sevier County in 1972. The animal was eventually described as Arkansaurus fridayi and made the state dinosaur in 2017.
• Rice is an official symbol. Named the state grain in 2007, rice is grown in the Grand Prairie in volumes that account for roughly half of all United States production.
• The state butterfly has two color schemes. The Diana fritillary, adopted in 2007, is strongly sexually dimorphic: males are orange and black, females are blue and black, and they were once described as separate species.

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