Bentonville

Bentonville, Arkansas is a city in Northwest Arkansas, and county seat of Benton County, Arkansas, United States The population was 35,301 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bentonville is also home to the Wal-Mart Home Offices, headquarters of Walmart Stores, the largest private employer and retailer in the world. The city was named after Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Senator Benton helped Arkansas obtain statehood in 1836, and his namesake, Bentonville, became the first town established in Benton... County. Two years later, in 1838, thousands of Cherokee Indians from Georgia passed through Benton County as part of the Trail of Tears route to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. During the Civil War, Bentonville was occupied by Union forces, and several of the city's buildings were burned. After the war, the area established a vibrant apple industry, with Benton County becoming the leading apple producing county in the nation in 1901. In the 1920s and 1930s the county developed a reputation as a leader in poultry production, which the area still maintains today.
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