Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas and the county seat of Pulaski County, Arkansas.

Archeological evidence indicates that the area of central Arkansas was occupied by the Folsom people, Bluff Dwellers, Mound Builders, Caddo, Quapaw, Osage, Choctaw and Cherokee thousands of years before the recorded arrival of the first European, the Spaniard, Hernando de Soto in 1541.

A suitable crossing of the Arkansas River was located near a small rock formation. In 1722, French explorer Jean Baptiste Benard de la Harp gave it the name, “La Petite Roche”, or in English, “the little rock.” LaHarp built a trading post in the area. At this time the area was under the control of France as a part of Louisiana. In 1803, the area became a possession of the U.S. with the Louisiana Purchase.

In time the area surrounding the ford became generally known as “the little rock”, a spot where the flat lands of the Mississippi Delta ended and the foothills of the Quachita Mountains began. Among its earliest settlers, was a fur trapper named William Lewis who built his home near the little rock outcropping in 1812.
In 1819, the Arkansas Territory was created and the area was surveyed in 1820. In 1821, Little Rock became the territorial capital. However, it would not become incorporated as a city until 1831.

In 1833, construction of the territorial capital building , known today as the Old State House, was started; it was completed in 1842.

In 1836, Arkansas became the twenty-fifth state of the union, with Little Rock as its state capital.

In 1860, the population of Little Rock was 3,700 people. By this time, some residents had gas lighting in their homes and construction of a railroad line between Memphis and Little Rock had begun. However, with the Civil War looming just a year away, the railroad’s completion didn’t occur until 1870.

In 1861, Arkansas joined the Confederacy and was occupied by Union forces from 1863 until the end of the war.

Following the Civil War, Little Rock grew quickly and by 1870 its population was 12,380.