Wikipedia
The Ark-La-Tex (also known as Arklatex, ArkLaTex, or more inclusively Arklatexoma) is a U.S. socio-economic region where Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma intersect. The region contains portions of Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, South Arkansas, and the Little Dixie area of Oklahoma.
The region is geographically centered on the Arkansas/Texas stateline at the point of the Federal courthouse and Post Office in downtown Texarkana. Other important cities in the region include Shreveport, in Northwest Louisiana, Marshall in Northeast Texas, and Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Although it is not an official US metropolitan area, it has a total population of 1,043,570. Its largest city is Shreveport, Louisiana with Tyler, Texas second, Longview, Texas third, and Texarkana, Texas/ Texarkana, Arkansas fourth.
The area covers roughly 46,500 square miles, as it is about 240 miles North to South (Mena, Arkansas in the north to Lufkin, Texas in the south) and about 194 miles East to West (El Dorado Arkansas in the East to Sulphur Springs, Texas to the West).
Most of the region is located in the Piney Woods, an ecoregion of dense forest of mixed deciduous and conifer flora. The forests are periodically punctuated by sloughs and bayous that are linked to larger bodies of water such as Caddo Lake or the Red River.
According to one source, the name "Ark-La-Tex" was first promoted for the region by a Shreveport Chamber of Commerce campaign in 1932-33.