A great way to start out in Little Rock is by hopping on the sightseeing bus “The Little Rock and Roll.” It gives a tour that hits all the historic highlights of the city. And these historic highlights stretch back a long way. It was 1722 when the French explorer Bernard de la Harpe saw the two rocks on either side of the river, one big, one little.

 

william j. clinton library and museum2005_5_57

A great way to start out in Little Rock is by hopping on the sightseeing bus “The Little Rock and Roll.” It gives a tour that hits all the historic highlights of the city. And these historic highlights stretch back a long way. It was 1722 when the French explorer Bernard de la Harpe saw the two rocks on either side of the river, one big, one little. Ninety-nine years later the still-tiny settlement became the capital of the Arkansas Territory, selected for its location on relatively non-malarial high ground.

Both of the state’s capitol buildings still stand. The one from 1836 is a local landmark; the current one was completed in 1915. The state seceded from the Union at the start of the Civil War, and Little Rock was taken back by Federal forces in 1863. In the 1880s it became a major railroad hub; in 1969 a collection of locks and dams turned it into a port on the river.

You don’t need a tour to find your way to the bustling River Market District , where many of the older buildings have been converted into restaurants, clubs, shops, offices, and residential lofts. At noontime the River Market building teems with hungry office workers savoring everything from barbecue to enchiladas to dim sum. Outside, from late spring to early fall, central Arkansas farmers sell fruits and vegetables on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center opened last November 4 in a 30-acre park on the bank of the Arkansas River to the east of the River Market District. The Clinton complex includes the presidential library and museum, archives, a restored Rock Island Railroad Bridge from the early 1900s, which will become a pedestrian crossing over the river, and Choctaw Station, which was built in 1899. Another building closely associated with Clinton is the white-stuccoed Old State House Museum, where the governor announced his candidacy for President in 1991. It’s the oldest standing capitol building west of the Mississippi, and its political history is showcased in permanent exhibits.

You can experience territorial Arkansas at the nearby Historic Arkansas Museum . It includes four original buildings from the 1820s and 1830s, still on their original sites. Little Rock’s oldest and most historic neighborhood is the Quapaw Quarter, which is chock-full of stately homes, most of them dating from between 1880 and 1920.

One of the major sights on “The Little Rock and Roll” tour