Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Anna Across America - Little Rock, Arkansas

Our tour of Tennessee complete, we head across the Mississippi River to Arkansas and its capital, Little Rock.  The city of Little Rock was named for a small rock outcropping on the Arkansas River which frontiersman used for navigation.  Today, Little Rock is a thriving center of government and commerce for the state and region.

At left stands the Arkansas State Capitol.  Using prison labor it was built over a course of 15 years and was finished in 1915.  It features a limestone exterior, the rock coming from an Arkansas quarry.  The building's most famous tenant was  Bill Clinton.   In 1978, Clinton became the youngest governor in the country at 32.  Known as the "boy governor", Clinton served a 12-year stint as governor which was a springboard to the White House for he and his wife Hillary.