Arkansas (river)

Arkansas , river, c.1,450 mi (2,330 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts., central Colo., and flowing generally SE across the plains to the Mississippi River, SE Ark.; drains 160,500 sq mi (415,700 sq km). The Canadian and Cimarron rivers are its main tributaries. It is the chief waterway for the state of Arkansas, where it drains a broad valley. The upper course of the Arkansas River has many rapids and flows through Royal Gorge, one of the deepest canyons in the United States. More than 25 dams on the river provide flood control, power, and irrigation. During the warm months, because of its extensive use for irrigation, the middle course of the Arkansas is reduced to a trickle. The John Martin dam and reservoir in Colorado is one of the largest water-storage and flood-control units in the river basin. The Arkansas River Navigation System, opened in 1971, makes the river navigable to Tulsa, Okla., 440 mi (708 km) upstream. The Spanish explorers Coronado and De Soto probably traveled along portions of the river in the 1540s. In 1806, Zebulon Pike , an American army officer, explored the river's upper reaches in Colorado. The Arkansas River was an important trade and travel route in the 19th cent.

Kit, the Arkansas Traveller (1871), a play by T.B. De Walden and Edward Spencer. [Niblo's Garden, 40 perf.] Young Arkansas farmer Kit Redding ( Frank Chanfrau) and his wife, Mary ( Rose Evans), live happily with their young daughter Alice ( Minnie Maddern [Fiske]) until Mary's former suitor, the crooked gambler Manuel Bond ( George C. Boniface), abducts both mother and child. Years later, Kit has become a wealthy, but disconsolate merchant, who continually searches for his wife and child when he is not in his cups. He finally encounters Manuel, who now calls himself Hastings, and a grown Alice (played by Evans) on a Mississippi River steamboat. Mary has died, so it is up to Kit to convince Alice that she is his daughter. At the same time, Hastings sets fire to the boat, hoping in the confusion to rob it. The passengers are shipwrecked on a small island, where Kit kills Hastings and reclaims Alice. The play had toured the country for over a year before coming to New York. It was well received, the Times noting it offered “realistic pictures of every‐day life in the West—reasonably realistic, be it understood—[and] exciting situations” as well as “representative types from distant places.” It became Chanfrau's principal vehicle for the rest of his life. After his death it continued to be played by others well into the 1890s. T. B. DE WALDEN [né Thomas Blades] (1811–73) was a London‐born actor, playwright, and manager, who made his American debut in 1844. He was Chanfrau's business manager for many years. His last play, written for Edward Eddy, was The Life and Death of Natty Bumppo.