Van Buren, Arkansas

Van Buren is a city located in Crawford County, Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,986. The city is the county seat of Crawford County{{GR|6}}. Located near the junction of Intersate 40 and the Arkansas/Oklahoma border, Van Buren is known to many travellers as a welcomed rest stop.

Related Topics:
Crawford County, Arkansas - 2000 - County seat

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The small town has a number of claims to fame.

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Business

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Van Buren is the home town and headquarters of publicly-traded trucking company, USA Truck.

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Radio

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Bob Burns, a Van Buren native, was a celebrity in the early days of radio.

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Sport

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Van Buren is the hometown of NFL football player Matt Jones, a wide receiver with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tall, fast, athletic, and with unusually sure hands, Jones seemed destined to play the wide receiver role. But as a teenager, Jones rocked the Van Buren sports world by transferring to neighboring Fort Smith for his senior year of high school in order to continue playing quarterback. Jones then started as a college quarterback for the Arkansas Razorbacks for four years, from 2001 ? 2004. Jones is best known for his athleticism and freakish combination of size and speed: the tall, laid-back blond shocked NFL scouts at the 2005 NFL combine by clocking a 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds. That sprint time set a combine record for quarterbacks, and appears to be unprecedented for an athlete as tall or as massive as Jones, who is over 6? 6? tall and some 240 pounds. It also secured his spot in the first round of the 2005 draft in the NFL, where Jones has at long last accepted his role as a wide receiver.

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Literature

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Van Buren has at least one literary appearance of note. In the science fiction classic Stranger in a Strange Land by sci-fi legend Robert Heinlein, a group of Christian fundamentalists in Van Buren is briefly mentioned as organizing an effort to send missionaries to Mars.

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