From natural disasters, economic lulls to political upheavals and race issues, Arkansas has experienced its share and then some. These calamities have been referred to as Arkansas' bleakest period and fell within a 70-year period; the largest impact between 1927 and 1937 with two Great floods, a drought and the Great Depression.

This tumultuous period of Arkansas history was also marked by intense political upheavals such as the formation of the Conservative party in 1866 which returned power to many of the same people who ran the state before the war; the adoption of a new state constitution; the creation of sharecroppers; the Brooks-Baxter war along with other challenging and contentious issues.

Join Rex Nelson, a chronicler of Arkansas history, Senior Editor and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, as he discusses the impact that each disaster and upheaval played on residents and the state of Arkansas as a whole.