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Cotton Belt
agricultural region, United States
News •
ARKANSAS SIGHTSEEING: Arkansas Railroad Museum offers visitors a trip through the past
• Oct. 26, 2026, 3:00 PM ET (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
Cotton Belt, agricultural region of the southern U.S. where cotton is the main cash crop. Once confined to the pre-Civil War South, the Cotton Belt was pushed west after the war. Today it extends from southeastern Virginia to central and southern California and includes North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.
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