page_title: Arkansas County, Arkansas
section_title: Annual cultural events
hierarchical_section_title: Arkansas County, Arkansas / Culture and contemporary life / Annual cultural events
caption_attribution_description: English: Waterfowl near Bayou Meto, Arkansas.
context_page_description: Arkansas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,019. Located in the Arkansas Delta, the county has two county seats, De Witt and Stuttgart.
  The first of the state's 75 present-day counties to be created, Arkansas County was formed on December 13, 1813, when this area was part of the Missouri Territory. The county was named after the Arkansas River, as was the subsequent Arkansas Territory. This was later split off from Missouri Territory and eventually admitted to the union as a state. The riverfront areas in the Arkansas Delta were developed for cotton plantations, based on the use of enslaved African Americans. Cotton was the major commodity crop before and after the Civil War. Other crops such as soybeans are also cultivated now, in industrial-scale production.
  Arkansas County is one of seven present-day counties in the United States that have the same name as the state in which they are located.
context_section_description: The most widely known annual cultural event in Arkansas County is the Gillett Coon Supper, described by The Wall Street Journal as "a political rite of passage" for those seeking public office in Arkansas. The meeting of local residents and politicians started in 1943 as a fundraiser serving boiled, and smoked raccoon for the Gillet High School football team, but has remained a tradition long after the school's consolidation.
  Perhaps the most popular annual event is duck hunting season between November and January, a tradition dating back to the Illinois Indians who traveled south to Arkansas to hunt. Popular with Arkansans and tourist hunters from across the country, annual hunting trips in Arkansas were first documented by French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673. Many hunts are organized through hunting clubs (like the historic Crocketts Bluff Hunting Lodge) and usually involve local guides for tourist groups. Public lands are very desirable and fill up quickly; many Arkansans seek to use private lands in Arkansas County to avoid crowds. In the 2016–17 season, the AGFC sold over 100,000 waterfowl stamps, roughly equally split between in-state and out-of-state hunters. The numbers include over 8,000 to out-of-state hunters to hunt on WMAs. Festivities begin during Thanksgiving Week with the World's Championship Duck Calling Contest and Wings Over the Prairie Festival in Stuttgart.
  The Arkansas County Fair has been held annually since 1938 at the Arkansas County Fairgrounds in DeWitt during mid-September.
caption: Waterfowl near Bayou Meto
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