You can travel south from Arkansas to reach every state it borders.

The border between Arkansas and its six neighboring states is quite the geographical oddity. Arkansas shares its approximately 170-mile-long southern border with Louisiana. But you can also travel south from various points in Arkansas and wind up in Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, or Oklahoma.

Arkansas is home to America’s first national river.

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In 1972, Arkansas’ Buffalo River became the first U.S. body of water designated as a national river. The river begins in the Ozark Mountains and flows eastward for 135 miles, ultimately merging with the White River near Buffalo City.

One of Arkansas’ longest borders is with Missouri, a state largely located to the north. But there’s a region of Missouri at the eastern end of that border, called the Missouri Bootheel, that dips south into what was once Arkansas Territory. The Missouri-Arkansas boundary was originally meant to be a straight line, but the Bootheel was created when some settlers in the Arkansas Territory successfully petitioned for their land to be included in Missouri. As a result, you can technically travel south from the northeasternmost part of Arkansas into its neighbor to the north.

Meanwhile, Arkansas shares its eastern border with Tennessee and Mississippi along the Mississippi River. As the river flows south, it angles west, creating a situation where parts of Arkansas are located north of its two eastern neighbors. And the Arkansas-Oklahoma border to the west is angled in such a way that if you’re located in the northwestern part of Arkansas, you can travel due south to end up in Oklahoma.

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