[Hollynla]

Me and my cousin (who lives in Colorado) were discussing this and are both confused. In the ozark region of Arkansas, I consider to be a midwestern area, the southern part of the state is the south. Looking on google, Arkansas is considered a southern state. Being from Louisiana, I just don't feel I am in the south up here. What do YOU consider northern/northwest Arkansas?

The maps in general can give you several different answers. My cousin lives in Guffey CO. She said most of the locals consider it the midwest / west/ high prairieland. Maps should it as "mountain".

[Rock Climber]

Upper South. NE part of the Southwest.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Hollynla

Me and my cousin (who lives in Colorado) were discussing this and are both confused. In the ozark region of Arkansas, I consider to be a midwestern area, the southern part of the state is the south. Looking on google, Arkansas is considered a southern state. Being from Louisiana, I just don't feel I am in the south up here. What do YOU consider northern/northwest Arkansas?

The maps in general can give you several different answers. My cousin lives in Guffey CO. She said most of the locals consider it the midwest / west/ high prairieland. Maps should it as "mountain".

What a coincidence you posted this, Holly.......I was just about to start a thread asking if the Ozark region of Arkansas (specifically NW Arkansas) identified more as Midwestern or Southern!

When I interviewed in Bentonville a few months back, it seemed like everyone I met was from Kansas, Iowa, or Missouri. Oklahoma isn't considered southern, and it's right next door. Kansas City's only 3 hours away......St. Louis about 5. Got me to wonderin'.....so I'll be interested to see what folks say, too!

[Old Fossil]

I think most sources consider the state, geographically, southwest, but if you are trying to break the state down into specific geographic areas, that's different.

[slingshot]

IMO, it all amounts to perspective. IMO, Arkansas is part of the South due to it's stance during the Civil War.

[nmnita]

I think technically, going back to my childhood geography classes (which bTW has a heck of a long time ago) it is part of the south, south of the Mason Dickson line but unless you live in Little Rock or further south it is more mid western. The attitude of the people isn't as southern and with so many transplants from the upper mid west and the west we just are not really southern.

[Jowel]

I always think of Arkansas as being southern (based on history, accents, etc.). And though Arkansas, like many states has areas that are more blended in terms of culture, people migrating from outside of the south, etc., if one region has to be the "best" fit, the South is definitely it for Arkansas. The same could be said for Georgia around the Atlanta area, but Georgia is overwhelmingly still a Southern state.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Jowel

I always think of Arkansas as being southern (based on history, accents, etc.). And though Arkansas, like many states has areas that are more blended in terms of culture, people migrating from outside of the south, etc., if one region has to be the "best" fit, the South is definitely it for Arkansas. The same could be said for Georgia around the Atlanta area, but Georgia is overwhelmingly still a Southern state.

I agree with you to some extent, but there is little similarity between GA, even Atlanta and the northern part of AR. Of course for starters we are on the border of both Kansas and Mo. This is why I mentioned from Little Rock, south it is almost another state in culture, accents, demographics, etc.

This topic comes up about once every year or two, with so many mixed feelings; some see it, as you do, others do not think of AR as the same as the true south. The same could be said about WV or visa versa.

[CraigCreek]

Originally Posted by slingshot

IMO, it all amounts to perspective. IMO, Arkansas is part of the South due to it's stance during the Civil War.

Yet many Arkansans' loyalties lay with the Union. In my own family, a young g-uncle (really, really long generations in that branch) enlisted in the spring of 1861, along with several other friends from the neighborhood (one of whom eventually became his brother-in-law) and fought for the Confederacy, seeing action at Pea Ridge, Chickamauga, Richmond, Ky, and elsewhere east of the Mississippi River - but after a skirmish took place within half a mile of the family home, and two younger brothers, ages 14 and 17, assisted with evacuating the wounded and burying the dead afterwards, that middle brother enlisted in the Union Army shortly after his 18th birthday.

He died of disease, in the Union hospital in Little Rock, on the same day Lincoln was assassinated. He was 19.

His oldest brother survived, came home and farmed for the rest of his long life. The youngest brother wrote about the family's experiences during the war, which is a great legacy for the generations which followed. Their youngest sister, born after the war, was my grandmother. The family lived near Fort Smith, which changed hands numerous times during the war. They were small farmers, with a couple of hundred acres in corn, wheat, and livestock, and were not slaveholders.

( Arkansas, where I spent a great deal of time during my younger years and visited relatives very recently, is quite definitely a Southern state).

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I agree with you to some extent, but there is little similarity between GA, even Atlanta and the northern part of AR. Of course for starters we are on the border of both Kansas and Mo. This is why I mentioned from Little Rock, south it is almost another state in culture, accents, demographics, etc.

Quite true. I lived in Georgia for 20 years......that is the DEEP south. Little Rock is somewhat similar, but once I get north of the river the "flavor" of everything just seems to change. The spoken accents lose some of their twang, as well. That's just from my brief experience traveling the state.

The southwestern contention I just don't get. When I think of the southwest I think of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, not a lush green place like Arkansas.