Arkansas has two well-defined natural regions. A line drawn from the northeastern corner of the state southwestward through Little Rock to Arkadelphia, and from there due west to the Oklahoma border, separates the two regions. North and west of the line are the Interior Highlands; east and south of the line is the Coastal Plain.

The Interior Highlands include the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains, and the Arkansas River Valley, which divides the two highland regions. The highest mountain peak in the state, Magazine Mountain, rises abruptly from the Arkansas Valley floor to 2,753 ft above sea level. Other isolated peaks in the valley are Sugar Loaf Mountain, Poteau Mountain, Mount Nebo, and Petit Jean Mountain.

North of the Arkansas Valley are the Ozark Mountains, or Ozark Plateau, which lie mainly in southern Missouri. Commonly known as the Ozarks, they are made up of ancient sandstones and limestones. In many places the limestone has been dissolved by water to form caves, sinks (depressions or holes in the earth’s surface), and even underground river channels. The southern part of the Ozarks is known as the Boston Mountains, which extend about about 200 mi from east to west. They form the most rugged part of the Ozarks and are bounded on the north by a gentle escarpment. With peaks more than 2,300 ft high, the Boston Mountains are a heavily wooded tangle of steep sandstone ridges and jagged spurs, cut through by gorges as much as 1,400 ft deep.

South of the Arkansas Valley are the Ouachita Mountains, which also contain rocks of great age. The rock layers here were subjected to tremendous pressure in the geologic past and were pushed into folds that now form long, narrow ridges that run from east to west and are separated by wide basins. The Ouachitas cover a belt about 50 to 60 mi wide extending from just west of Little Rock into Oklahoma. They rise to the west, reaching over 2,600 ft at Blue Mountain near the Oklahoma state line.

The Coastal Plain in Arkansas extends across the eastern and southern parts of the state in two sections. The easternmost section is composed of the fertile Mississippi Alluvial Plain. This is often called the Delta, and until it was cleared for agriculture it was an area of swamps, dense forest, and tangled undergrowth. Its flat expanse is broken only by a narrow strip of hills, called Crowley’s Ridge, which extends about 150 mi from Helena on the Mississippi River north to the Missouri border where it reaches a height of about 550 ft. West of the southern part of the Delta is the West Gulf Coastal Plain, drained by the Saline, Ouachita, and Red rivers.

Abundance of water is a distinctive feature of Arkansas. The entire state drains southeastward to the Mississippi River, which forms the eastern boundary of Arkansas. There the Mississippi flows and winds its way across a wide floodplain.

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It rises as a small stream in the Rocky Mountains, and by the time it reaches Arkansas it is a great river flowing between broad banks. The water level on the river fluctuates seasonally. Other major rivers of the state are the Red River, which forms part of the boundary with Texas; the Ouachita River and its tributary, the Saline, which drain south-central Arkansas; the White River and its tributaries, the Black and the Little Red, which gather the runoff of northern Arkansas; and the Saint Francis River, in the northeast, which flows almost parallel to the Mississippi before joining it near Helena.

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