Editing Smackover, Arkansas (section)

==History==
In 1686, the French settlers called this area ''"Sumac Couvert"'', which translates to "covered in [[Sumac|sumac bushes]]".  This was transliterated, that is, phonetically Anglicized by the English-speaking settlers of the 19th century and later to the name "Smackover."

The name Bayou de Chemin Couvert (Smackover Creek) first appeared in an April 5, 1789, letter written by the commandant of Fort Miro (Monroe, Louisiana) to the French territorial governor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/smackover-union-county-1000/|title=Encyclopedia of Arkansas|website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas|access-date=December 28, 2019}}</ref>

Oil was discovered in this area in 1922; it attracted national attention, speculators, and an economic boom. Smackover was incorporated in 1923. In the 1920s there was a large-scale oil industry in Smackover.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yzk9g9TuMNYC&q=fleatown+ohio&pg=PA20 | title=A Place Called Peculiar: Stories About Unusual American Place-Names | publisher=Courier Dover Publications | date=May 17, 2012 | access-date=April 19, 2013 | author=Gallant, Frank K. | pages=20| isbn=9780486483603 }}</ref> The industry declined here and across southern Arkansas by the 1960s, at a cost of many jobs and major losses to the area economy.