A Brief History of Little Rock, AR

Little Rock was first inhabited by a group of Stone Age people who were able to construct huge earthen mounds that still exist. The artifacts of various Native American tribes have been found here, indicating that they settled here thousands of years before Hernando de Soto, the first European in the area, travelled though what is now Little Rock in 1541. He encountered the Quapaw group of Native Americans scattered throughout the area, who numbered around 7,000 before they started to decline because of disease and war. Bernard de la Harpe was a French explorer who also came to the area in 1722, and named a nearby landmark La Petite Roche, which would later give the city its name of Little Rock. He established a trading post there, but the area was mainly uninhabited until the first house was built by William Lewis in 1812 and the land was staked out as a town site in 1820 by William Russel. This settlement was chosen as the capital of the Arkansas Territory in 1821, and was incorporated as a city in 1831. When Arkansas became a state in 1836, Little Rock was the official capital city.

Little Rock experienced growth after cotton cultivation became a major cash crop and Little Rock became an important distribution center. It seceded from the Union in 1861 and joined the confederacy during the Civil War, until it was occupied by Union forces in 1863. After the war was what was known as the Reconstruction Years, in which the city recovered and grew rapidly. Little Rock would develop in to a modern city by the end of the 19th century. This growth continued in to the 1900's, but was slowed by the Depression. Industry began to develop in Little Rock in the 1940's and 1950's. A national historic moment occurred in Little Rock in 1957 during the Civil Rights Movement when the Little Rock Nine, nine African-American students, were prevented from attending Little Rock Central High School by protests and the Arkansas National Guard, until President Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to escort them to school. In the 1960's, Little Rock became an increasingly industrial city, with employment and industrial growth continuing into the 1970's and 1980's, and Little Rock is still known as a center for progress and development.

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