Rediscovering the Arkansas River

Dr. Hanne Zacharias
Professor of Practice of Public Administration
University of Kansas
The Arkansas River pierces the heart of America, stretching 1,469 miles from the Tennessee Pass in Colorado to the Mississippi River at the eastern edge of Arkansas. As the nation’s 6th longest river (45th in the world) it is both the economic engine and burden to millions of people and scores of cities bordering its banks. From raging rapids to diversion dams for irrigation ditches, to dry streambeds and finally barge traffic, this presentation will examine the impact this wild, elusive and embattled river has had on cities, towns, and adjacent farmland, starting with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 through to the present day.