Arkansas Black: A Historic Apple Variety’s Legacy

In 1904, the Arkansas State delegation to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis included the Arkansas Black variety among dozens of locally grown apples in its World’s Fair horticultural exhibit. Although no prize records for the exhibit survive, sources note that the Arkansas Black “showed well” at the fair. The display helped Northwest Arkansas build its reputation as the “Big Red Apple,” and by 1919, Washington and Benton Counties produced more bushels of apples annually than any other two counties in the nation. Within a decade, however, Arkansas’s apple industry collapsed and never recovered. My novel Arkansas Black is set in this context.