Ark-La-Tex

Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas
Region

Country  United States of America
State  Arkansas
 Louisiana
 Oklahoma
 Texas
Largest city  Shreveport
Population (2010)
 • Total 1,043,570

The Ark-La-Tex (also known as Arklatex, ArkLaTex, or more inclusively Arklatexoma) is a U.S. socio-economic region where Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma abut. The region contains portions of Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, South Arkansas, and the Little Dixie area of Oklahoma.

The region is geographically centered on the Arkansas/Texas stateline at the point of the Federal courthouse and Post Office in downtown Texarkana. Other important cities in the region include Shreveport, in Northwest Louisiana, Marshall in Northeast Texas, and Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Although it is not an official US metropolitan area, it has a total population of 1,043,570. Its largest city is Shreveport, Louisiana with Tyler, Texas second, Longview, Texas third, and Texarkana, Texas/Texarkana, Arkansas fourth.

The area covers roughly 46,500 square miles, as it is about 240 miles North to South (Mena, Arkansas in the north to Lufkin, Texas in the south) and about 194 miles East to West (El Dorado Arkansas in the East to Sulphur Springs, Texas to the West).

Most of the region is located in the Piney Woods, an ecoregion of dense forest of mixed deciduous and conifer flora. The forests are periodically punctuated by sloughs and bayous that are linked to larger bodies of water such as Caddo Lake or the Red River.

According to one source, the name "Ark-La-Tex" was first promoted for the region by a Shreveport Chamber of Commerce campaign in 1932-33.[1]

Culture

The culture of the Ark-La-Tex region, and especially its music, shows a mixture of influences from the related, but distinct, cultures of its surrounding states. The music of the area is marked by country and blues sounds typical of the music of the Southern United States, the Western music of Texas, and the well-documented music of New Orleans and Acadiana in Louisiana.[2] The area had a significant role in the development of country and rock and roll music beginning in the 1940s. On March 1, 1948, Shreveport radio station KWKH launched a country music variety show called the Ark-La-Tex Jubilee, followed a month later by the long-running and influential Louisiana Hayride program.[3] Hayride director Horace Logan and regular performer Webb Pierce started a music publishing company called Ark-La-Tex Music.[4][5]

Drummer Brian Blade, a Shreveport native, included a song entitled "Ark.La.Tex." on his 2014 album Landmarks, exploring the mixture of musical influences in his home region.[6]

Media

TV

Radio

Communities

Largest cities

List of cities over 2,500 people:

Louisiana

City Parish Population
Arcadia Bienville 2,919
Blanchard Caddo 2,899
Bossier City Bossier 62,745
Eastwood Bossier 4,093
Grambling Lincoln 4,949
Greenwood Caddo 3,219
Haughton Bossier 3,454
Homer Claiborne 3,237
Jonesboro Jackson 4,704
Mansfield DeSoto 5,001
Many Sabine 2,853
Minden Webster 13,082
Natchitoches Natchitoches 18,323
Red Chute Bossier 6,261
Ruston Lincoln 21,859
Shreveport Caddo, Bossier 200,975
Springhill Webster 5,279
Vivian Caddo 3,671
Winnfield Winn 4,840

Texas

City County Population
Atlanta Cass 5,675
Athens Henderson 12,710
Bonham Fannin 10,127
Carthage Panola 6,779
Clarksville Red River 3,883
Crockett Houston 7,141
Daingerfield Morris 2,560
Gilmer Upshur 4,905
Gladewater Gregg, Upshur 6,228
Hallsville Harrison 3,775
Henderson Rusk 13,712
Hooks Bowie 2,769
Jacksonville Cherokee 14,544
Kilgore Gregg, Rusk 12,975
Longview Gregg, Harrison 80,455
Lufkin Angelina 35,067
Marshall Harrison 23,523
Mount Pleasant Titus 15,564
Mount Vernon Franklin 2,662
Nacogdoches Nacogdoches 32,996
New Boston Bowie 4,550
Paris Lamar 25,171
Pittsburg Camp 4,497
Sulphur Springs Hopkins 15,449
Texarkana Bowie 36,411
Tyler Smith 96,900
White Oak Gregg 6,469

Arkansas

City County Population
Arkadelphia Clark 10,714
Ashdown Little River 4,723
Camden Ouachita 12,183
De Queen Sevier 6,629
El Dorado Union 18,491
Hope Hempstead 17,264
Magnolia Columbia 11,577
Mena Polk 5,737
Nashville Howard 4,627
Prescott Nevada 3,868
Texarkana Miller 29,919

Oklahoma

City County Population
Broken Bow McCurtain 4,120
Hugo Choctaw 5,310
Idabel McCurtain 7,010

Notable people

References

  1. ↑ Bonnye E. Stuart, Louisiana Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Globe Pequot, 2012), ISBN 978-0762769773, pp. 5-7. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  2. ↑ See generally Kip Lornell and Tracey E. W. Laird, eds., Shreveport Sounds in Black and White (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), ISBN 978-1934110423, and in particular the introductory section entitled "The 'Ark-La-Tex' and Music Research" at pp. xii-xvii. Excerpts available at Google Books; other excerpts also available at Amazon.com here.
  3. ↑ Tracey E. W. Laird, Louisiana Hayride : Radio and Roots Music along the Red River: Radio and Roots Music along the Red River (Oxford University Press, 2004), ISBN 978-0195347180, p. 6. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  4. ↑ "Webb Pierce" in Michael Erlewine, ed., All Music Guide to Country: The Experts' Guide to the Best Recordings in Country Music ( Hal Leonard Corporation, 1997), ISBN 978-0879304751, p. 364. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  5. ↑ "KWKH Maps Big Build-Up on Hillbillies", Billboard, August 30, 1952, p. 19.
  6. ↑ "Brian Blade Finds A 'Landmark' In His Shreveport Roots", Weekend Edition, April 27, 2014.("... my depiction musically of this region where we live, you know, where Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas meet here at the northwestern corner of Louisiana. I guess in terms of the structure of the song - these sort of three different moods - it unfolds in this very small way - these seeds. Then all of a sudden, you cross a line and the landscape changes immediately.")

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