The hilly 3rd, Arkansas' most reliably Republican constituency, has roots of GOP allegiance dating back to the Civil War. That conflict struck many of the small-scale farmers here as one fought mostly in behalf of the wealthy, slaveholding planters in the flatter parts of Arkansas. In 1988, George Bush won two-thirds of the district's presidential vote; even in 1992, Arkansan Bill Clinton lost four of the district's 16 counties. And in the counties Clinton won, he typically got less than 50 percent.

Back in 1974, this is where Clinton cut his teeth in electoral politics. As a 28-year-old law professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Clinton challenged GOP Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt and held him to 52 percent; it was the only time Hammerschmidt ever won re-election with less than two-thirds of the vote.

Carroll County (once home to temperance advocate Carry Nation) conveys the conservative, Bible Belt character of the nearly all-white 3rd in the tourist attractions it offers: The area hosts year-round performances of The Great Passion Play, depicting Christ's last days on Earth. It also has the Bible Museum; the huge Christ of the Ozarks statue; and the Inspirational Wood Carvings Gallery. The warm baths at Eureka Springs are a more earthly attraction.

For generations, the rough terrain here made for a struggling economy dependent on relatively unproductive farmland. Vast pine forests in the Ouachita Mountains provide jobs in sawmills scattered through the rural counties. The large livestock business in the western portion of the 3rd gives a distinctly Western feel to the area around Fort Smith, on the Oklahoma border.

In recent years, the economy has been boosted by retirees and two home-grown national corporations, Tyson Foods Inc. and Wal-Mart. Arkansas is the nation's leading broiler producer, and Tyson is the state's poultry industry leader. The company also has moved into hogs, a growth industry along Arkansas' western border. In the 1980s, Tyson's headquarters city, Springdale (Washington County), grew about 20 percent, to almost 30,000.

Bentonville (Benton County) hosts the headquarters of Wal-Mart, as well as a distribution center for the discount chain. Concentrating on small-town markets, founder Sam Walton built Wal-Mart into a retailing behemoth (1,853 stores); he died in 1992 as one of the nation's wealthiest men.

The Ozark economy also has benefited from an influx of retirees. The area's mild climate and natural assets -- Beaver Lake and Bull Shoals Lake, the Buffalo River and two national forests -- have drawn people to newly developed planned communities.

The district's population centers are the manufacturing and livestock city of Fort Smith (Sebastian County), the state's second-largest city with 72,800 residents, and the university city of Fayetteville (Washington County), with just over 42,000 residents. Both cities typically support GOP candidates. In 1992, Clinton won Washington County narrowly, but Bush took Sebastian.