Some of the dumb laws in Arkansas are real statutes still sitting in the state code, some are old city ordinances from the drive-in era, and some are internet inventions that don’t survive a check against the actual books. The genuine ones range from a legislative resolution on how to say the state’s name to a criminal clause about hanging around ATMs. Below are the ones that hold up, the myths that don’t, and why the odd ones stick around.
The Legislature Told You How to Say “Arkansas”
In 1881, the General Assembly settled an actual argument by statute. Arkansas Code § 1-4-105 declares that the state’s name is pronounced in three syllables, with the final “s” silent, the accent on the first and last syllables, and each “a” given “the Italian sound.” Saying it with the accent on the second syllable and sounding the final “s” is, in the resolution’s own words, “an innovation to be discouraged.”1Justia Law. Arkansas Code 1-4-105 – Pronunciation of State Name
There is no penalty. It’s an official opinion dressed as a statute, credited to research by the Historical Society of the State of Arkansas and the Eclectic Society of Little Rock. But Arkansas remains one of the only states to legislate its own pronunciation, which is why the law shows up on every list of strange statutes.
No Honking at Sandwich Shops After 9 P.M.
Little Rock’s 1961 code, Section 25-74, stated: “No person shall sound the horn on a vehicle at any place where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9:00 p.m.” The rule made sense when drive-in restaurants filled the city and impatient customers would lean on the horn to summon a carhop. By the time the ordinance went viral online, drive-in culture was long gone and the language sounded absurd.
The broader city noise ordinance is still live. Little Rock Section 18-52 prohibits sounding a horn on any stationary vehicle (except to warn of an out-of-control approaching vehicle) and bars creating “any unreasonably loud or harsh sound” with a signal device for “an unnecessary and unreasonable period of time.”2Little Rock, Arkansas Code of Ordinances. Little Rock, AR Code of Ordinances – Sec. 18-52 – Noises Prohibited Generally The sandwich-shop specifics are a relic. The general ban on obnoxious honking still has teeth.
The Barking Dog Myth
You will see it repeated that Little Rock bans dogs from barking after 6 p.m. The actual ordinance sets no time cutoff. Section 18-52 prohibits keeping any animal, bird, or fowl that “by causing frequent or long continued noise shall disturb the comfort or repose of any person in the vicinity.”2Little Rock, Arkansas Code of Ordinances. Little Rock, AR Code of Ordinances – Sec. 18-52 – Noises Prohibited Generally The test is duration and disturbance, not the hour on the clock.
At the state level, Arkansas Code § 5-71-207 makes disorderly conduct a Class C misdemeanor, and one way to commit it is by making “unreasonable or excessive noise” with intent to annoy or alarm the public, or recklessly creating that risk.3Justia Law. Arkansas Code 5-71-207 – Disorderly Conduct That is the real statute behind most noise complaints. In theory, roosters that wake the neighborhood at 4 a.m. every morning could produce a criminal charge, not just a code citation.
Loose Livestock and Newspaper Notices
Claims that Little Rock once banned cows from Main Street don’t come with a citation to any surviving ordinance. What is real is Arkansas Code § 14-54-1101, which lets cities and incorporated towns keep cattle, horses, mules, swine, sheep, goats, and other livestock from running loose inside city limits.4Justia Law. Arkansas Code 14-54-1101 – Livestock Running at Large
The impoundment mechanics read like they were written for a different century. When an officer takes a loose animal into custody, a known owner has 24 hours to claim it after notification. If the owner is unknown, the city must post written notices in at least three public places, and larger cities must publish a newspaper notice describing the animal’s “marks, brands, and flesh marks.” The owner then has ten days to prove ownership and pay actual expenses before losing the animal.
The statute even punishes crooked pound masters. A city employee who drives or lures livestock from outside town into city limits to manufacture a violation faces a fine of $5 to $25. The dollar figures date the provision, but the authority remains on the books.
Sunday Alcohol Sales
Arkansas Code § 3-3-210 makes it a violation to sell intoxicating liquor on Sundays outside narrowly authorized windows. A first offense carries a fine of $100 to $250. A second offense is a Class B misdemeanor.5Justia Law. Arkansas Code 3-3-210 – Sale on Sunday or Early Weekday Mornings
The exceptions are layered. Bars and restaurants with on-premises consumption permits can operate Sundays from 10 a.m. to midnight, and cities, towns, and counties can tighten that window further. Off-premises sales (liquor stores, grocery stores) require the county or city to hold a referendum authorizing Sunday sales, and even after a yes vote, sales are limited to 10 a.m. through midnight. Wholesalers cannot sell or deliver to retailers on Sundays at all, no matter what the local rules allow.5Justia Law. Arkansas Code 3-3-210 – Sale on Sunday or Early Weekday Mornings
On top of the Sunday rules, individual counties and cities can vote to prohibit alcohol sales entirely. Some Arkansas counties stay completely dry. Others are partially wet, allowing sales only in certain cities or under certain permit types. A twenty-minute drive can take you from a county where bars close at midnight to one where buying a beer is flatly illegal.
One popular claim doesn’t check out: that Arkansas prohibits using the word “blind” in connection with alcohol businesses. No current statute or Alcoholic Beverage Control Division rule confirms it. The likely origin is “blind tiger,” Prohibition-era slang for an illegal saloon.
Sunday Dancing and Other Blue Laws
Alcohol wasn’t the only Sunday target. Fort Smith kept a 1953 ordinance prohibiting any person or business from operating a dance hall or allowing dancing on Sundays. That rule survived for 65 years before the city repealed it in July 2018.
Lists that claim Arkansas bans Sunday car sales or hardware sales don’t line up with any current state statute. The confusion is understandable. Sunday closing laws were once common across the South and were scattered through municipal codes rather than centralized at the state level, so tracking which specific ones still technically exist is close to impossible.
The Fiddle Is the Official State Instrument
Arkansas Code § 1-4-113 designates the fiddle as the official state musical instrument.6Justia Law. Arkansas Code 1-4-113 – State Musical Instrument Not the guitar, not the banjo, not a generic “string instrument.” A bill went through committee, passed both chambers, and was signed into law so that one specific instrument could carry official status. The nod is to Ozark folk tradition, but the result reads like statutory trivia.
Don’t Loiter at the ATM
Arkansas’s loitering statute, § 5-71-213, covers the obvious situations: hanging around schools without a reason, lingering to buy drugs or solicit prostitution, prowling in ways that alarm nearby people. Tucked into the list, subdivision (a)(9) makes it a Class C misdemeanor to linger “on or about the premises of any off-site customer-bank communication terminal” without a legitimate purpose.7Justia Law. Arkansas Code 5-71-213 – Loitering
Plain English: don’t hang around an ATM without a reason. The provision was aimed at preventing robberies and intimidation of ATM users, and it makes practical sense. The “off-site customer-bank communication terminal” phrasing is what happens when a legislature tries to future-proof a law by describing a machine instead of naming it.
The Flirting Ban That Isn’t
Several online lists claim flirting in public is illegal in Arkansas. No state statute or verifiable municipal ordinance backs that up. The likely source is the disorderly conduct law, § 5-71-207, which prohibits “abusive or obscene language” in a public place “in a manner likely to provoke a violent or disorderly response.”3Justia Law. Arkansas Code 5-71-207 – Disorderly Conduct That covers genuinely threatening speech, not awkward pickup lines. Someone stretched “obscene language in public” into a flirting ban and it spread.
Why the Odd Ones Stay on the Books
Repealing a law takes the same legislative machinery as passing one: introduction, committee assignment, debate, votes in both chambers, and the governor’s signature. Legislators have limited session time, and cleaning out an 1881 pronunciation resolution rarely competes with healthcare or taxes for a slot on the calendar.
Many of these statutes have also never been challenged, because nobody enforces them. Courts have struck down vague loitering and vagrancy laws under the void-for-vagueness doctrine when prosecutors have actually tried to use them,8Cornell Law Institute. Void for Vagueness and the Due Process Clause – Doctrine and Practice but a law nobody enforces produces no defendant with standing to sue. So the odder Arkansas statutes sit there, technically valid, functionally dead, until somebody either bothers to repeal them or a prosecutor makes the mistake of dusting one off.