Lonoke County, Arkansas
| Lonoke County, Arkansas | |
|---|---|
| County | |
| County of Lonoke | |
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 Location in the U.S. state of Arkansas |
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 Arkansas's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | April 16, 1873 |
| Seat | Lonoke |
| Largest city | Cabot |
| Area | |
| • Total | 803 sq mi (2,080 km2) |
| • Land | 771 sq mi (1,997 km2) |
| • Water | 32 sq mi (83 km2), 4.0% |
| Population (est.) | |
| • (2015) | 71,645 |
| • Density | 89/sq mi (34/km²) |
| Congressional district | 1st |
| Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 |
Lonoke County is a county located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,356, making it the eleventh-most populous of Arkansas's seventy-five counties. The county seat is Lonoke and largest city is Cabot. Lonoke County was formed on April 16, 1873 from Pulaski County and Prairie County, and was named as a corruption of "lone oak", after a large red oak in the area that had been used by a surveyor to lay out the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad.
Located within Central Arkansas, the county's varied geography can be roughly broken into thirds horizontally. The top third has rolling hills at the edge of the Ozarks, including the Cabot area. The middle third, including the Lonoke area, contains portions of the Grand Prairie, a flat native grassland today known for rice farming, an important part of the culture, economy and history of Lonoke County. The southern third, including the Scott area, is home to the alluvial soils of the Arkansas Delta. Historically, a military road and a railroad brought settlers to the area, and cotton cultivation was very profitable. In 1904, a demonstration that rice could grow well on the same land coupled with sinking cotton prices drove the area into rice cultivation. During World War I, a United States Army World War I Flight Training airfield, Eberts Field, was constructed.
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