Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States

🇺🇸 Fayetteville is the second-largest city in Arkansas and county seat of Washington County. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until 1829, the city was named after Fayetteville, Tennessee, from which many of the settlers had come. The four-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area is ranked 105th in terms of population in the United States.

Fayetteville is home to the University of Arkansas, the state's flagship university. When classes are in session, thousands of students on campus change up the pace of the city. Thousands of Arkansas Razorbacks alumni and fans travel to Fayetteville to attend football, basketball, and baseball games. The city of Fayetteville is colloquially known as the "Track Capital of the World" due to the success and prestige of the University of Arkansas cross country and track & field programs. The University's men's cross country and track and field programs have won a combined 41 national championships to date with the women's teams adding 5 national championships since 2015.

The city is the first in America to be awarded the designation of "Bike City" by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body of cycling. It was given the title in 2021 due to it not only hosting major UCI cycling events, but also its work in developing cycling through programs and infrastructure.

Fayetteville was named the fourth best place to live in the United States in the 2021 U.S. News Best Places To Live Rankings, and one of the best places to retire in the South. Forbes also ranked Fayetteville as the 40th-best city for business and careers in 2021. Lonely Planet named Fayetteville among its top 20 places to visit in the South in 2016. The city hosts the Walmart Shareholders Meetings each year at the Bud Walton Arena.

Geography: Topography Fayetteville is located in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks which runs through Northwest Arkansas, southern Missouri, and Eastern Oklahoma. The rocks of the Boston Mountains were formed when sandstones and shales were deposited on top of the Springfield Plateau during the Pennsylvanian Period. In the Fayetteville area, following uplift during the Ouachita orogeny, the sediments were eroded to expose the Mississippian limestone formations of the Springfield Plateau, while south of Fayetteville the remaining deeply eroded Pennsylvanian sediments form the steep Boston Mountains.

Fayetteville is also the namesake of the Fayetteville Shale, a geological formation which has recently become an epicenter for natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing.

Metropolitan area According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 55.2 square miles (143 km²), of which, 53.8 square miles (139 km²) of it is land and 1.4 square miles (3.6 km²) of it (2.59%) is water. The city is centrally located in Washington County, Arkansas, along Interstate 49/US Route 71. This is the only fully controlled access route through the area, which replaced the winding US 71 (now US 71B) in the 1990s. An interstate connection with Fort Smith to the south and Kansas City, Missouri, to the north has contributed to Fayetteville's growth. Within Washington County, Fayetteville is bordered along the north by Springdale and Johnson. At times, this transition is seamlessly urban. Fayetteville is not bordered to its south, instead opening up to scenic country along the Boston Mountains Scenic Loop. Past the rural communities of Greenland and West Fork is Devil's Den State Park. To the west is Farmington along US Route 62 and to the east is undeveloped land in rural Washington County.

The Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Area consists of three Arkansas counties: Benton, Madison, and Washington. Although the Metropolitan Statistical Area does not consist of the usual principal-city-with-suburbs geography, Fayetteville's adjacent communities include Elkins, Farmington, Greenland, Habberton, Johnson, and Wyman.

Districts Fayetteville is entirely contained within Fayetteville Township, as the township and city have identical boundaries. Although Arkansas generally does not use its civil townships for any governmental purpose, they are used for voting boundaries in some places.

Generally the part of Fayetteville west of I-49/US 71 is called west Fayetteville. Another prominent district is Uptown Fayetteville, which encompasses the scores of business and new homes near the Northwest Arkansas Mall in north Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas defines its own part of Fayetteville, with dozens of student apartments and restaurants located near campus. The University's impact is also apparent along College Avenue, which contains hundreds of shops and restaurants. Northeast of campus are the Wilson Park Historic District and the Mount Nord Historic District. The Fayetteville Historic Square is the original city centre of Fayetteville, and Dickson Street is the best-known entertainment district in Arkansas. Homes atop Mount Sequoyah in the eastern part of the city encircle Mount Sequoyah Retreat and Conference Center. Old structures are also located along the former Butterfield Overland Mail route, a stagecoach route to San Francisco, California, now known as Old Wire Road. Fifteenth Street forms the southernmost residential district of Fayetteville, with the Fayetteville Industrial Park to its east.

Annexed communities Fayetteville has annexed six unincorporated communities within its current corporate limits. Four of them are still listed as "populated places" by the USGS Board on Geographic Names. The other 2 are listed as "historical populated places". Annexations since 1870 are displayed on Fayetteville's website in the interactive maps section. Fayetteville's second annexations took place in 1946 when it incorporated Fayette Junction and McNair into the city. Baldwin was added the following year, with Barbara and Ruckers Grove being annexed in 1967. Fayetteville's most recent annexation occurred in 1982 when White Rock was added to the city limits.

Economy Walmart is based in nearby Bentonville, Arkansas, and is one of six Fortune 500 corporations based in the state (the others being Dillard's, J.B. Hunt, Murphy Oil, Tyson Foods, and Windstream). Tyson Foods is based in Springdale, Arkansas, which is adjacent to the north of Fayetteville. Despite not being based in Fayetteville, these corporations have a big impact through the University of Arkansas. The Sam M. Walton College of Business (named for Sam Walton) at the University has received numerous donations from the Walton family. Tyson also has a presence on campus at the Tyson Center for Excellence in Poultry Science, which holds classes for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. The poultry science program at Arkansas is one of the Top 5 programs in the United States. Transportation company J. B. Hunt is based in Lowell, Arkansas. It has donated millions of dollars to the university's logistics program, including $10 million funding the J.B. Hunt Center for Academic Excellence that completed in 2010.

The University of Arkansas has also been changing into a research-centered university since the late-20th century. The university's stated goals now include becoming the economic engine for the region, the state of Arkansas, and beyond. This focus on innovation has helped draw students who were interested in research to Fayetteville. This shift in emphasis was recognised by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching with classification in the category of "R1, Highest Research Activity", in 2011.

In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Fayetteville #27 on its list of "Best Places For Business And Careers", using criteria such as the cost of doing business, cost of living, educational achievement, and crime rate. In 2010, it was named #19 by Inc. Magazine on a list of "Best Mid-size Cities for Doing Business".

In 2016, the City of Fayetteville announced its intention to become "The Startup City of the South" and work on further development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This endeavor is fostered through support from the University of Arkansas and non-profit initiatives such as the Walton Family Foundation and Community Venture Foundation.

Economy: Top Employers 1   University of Arkansas; 2   Washington Regional Medical Center; 3   Walmart; 4   Fayetteville School District; 5   Veterans Administration Medical; 6   City of Fayetteville; 7   APAC Central, Inc.; 8   Pinnacle Foods; 9   Tyson Foods; 10   Washington County Government.

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas is Fayetteville's biggest attraction, with influence in the social, economic and educational aspects of Fayetteville. As the state's flagship university, U of A has become integrated with Fayetteville and vice versa. Currently ranked the #135th best university in the country, the University of Arkansas Campus Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places contains 71 acres (29 ha) and 25 buildings within a park-like arboretum. In autumn, hundreds of parents travel to Fayetteville to help their children move into the various residence halls and apartments in the area, with thousands more attending Razorback football home games. Fans return for basketball games to pack Bud Walton Arena, which was the fifth-largest on-campus arena upon completion. In spring the Hogs baseball team can be seen in Baum Stadium, named one of the top college baseball facilities in the South by Rivals.com in 2010 due to the use of a large donation by the Walton family.

Senior Walk is a 5-mile (8.0 km) sidewalk record of every graduate from the University of Arkansas. It spans nearly the entire sidewalk network in the core of the campus.

During the last decade, the university has drawn a large influx of students from bordering states, largely due to the New Arkansan Non-Resident Tuition Award scholarship program. As of Spring 2018, nearly 40% of the student population is made up of students hailing from outside of Arkansas. As a result, student-centered off-campus apartments communities are being rapidly built to accommodate the growing student population.