If I could rest anywhere, it would be in Arkansas, where men
are of the half-horse, half-alligator breed such as grows nowhere else on
the face of the universal earth. -Davy Crockett, supposedly
LITTLE ROCK - In a sign of the effete times, the Bear State is now the
Natural State - a more respectable, acceptable and promotable way of
referring to Arkansas' natural bounty. Like the bears, we've been tamed. To
resurrect a nickname like the Bear State could prove more a deterrent than
an incentive to tourists, investors, and others with cash to spare.
The Bear State was just one of Arkansas' nicknames that didn't endure - any
more than the bears did, though they're said to be making a comeback in
these more environmentally conscious times.
For a time Arkansas was also known as the Bowie State in honor of the Bowie
Knife/Arkansas Toothpick.
The story is that, back when this was the Arkansas Territory, one James
Black made the first such utensil according to Jim Bowie's exacting
specifications. To wit: The knife was to be sharp as a razor, heavy as a
hatchet, long enough to double as a sword, and wide enough to paddle a
canoe. (At least the Arkansas tendency to embellish on mere reality has
endured, which is assuring.)
Between the world wars, we became the Wonder State in tribute to the
varieties of our mineral wealth, including diamonds.
The change was understandable. A moniker like The Bear State might leave
entirely too rustic an impression, much like other now verboten references
considered insufficiently cosmopolitan - Lum 'n' Abner, Bob (Bazooka) Burns,
"On a Slow Train Through Arkansas."
Even to mention them now feels daring, as if some unofficial taboo were
being violated. The Bear State? Why, Louisiana might as well want to be
called the Alligator State.
As Arkansas became more modernized, industrialized and generally
Americanized, a tag like the Wonder State gave way to Land of Opportunity,
which is still true enough. Names like Walton and Tyson now have become as
familiar as Rockefeller and Morgan were a century ago.
Then, a decade ago, the Natural State emerged as Arkansas' license-plate
identity, inspired by the state's tourism ads. Arkansas is a
natural!)