HOPE

city, seat (1939) of Hempstead county, southwestern Arkansas, U.S., about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Texarkana. It was founded in 1852 as a station on the Cairo and Fulton (now Union Pacific) Railroad and was named for the daughter of James Loughborough, a railroad land commissioner who laid out the townsite. It developed as a shipping centre for timber and agricultural products, notably watermelons, beef cattle, cotton, eggs, and poultry. The economy is based on poultry processing, bakery goods, and the manufacture of steel joists, auto parts, audio equipment, and molded plastics. Hope is the birthplace (1946) of William J. Clinton, 42nd president of the United States. A community college affiliated with the University of Arkansas is located there. A few miles northwest is Old Washington Historic State Park, site of the Confederate State Capitol (186365) and other period buildings. Inc. town, 1875; city, 1906. Pop. (1990) 9,768; (1998 est.) 9,775. town, southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Coquihalla and Fraser rivers in the forested Coast Mountains, near Mount Hope (6,000 feet ), 90 miles (145 km) east of Vancouver. The Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Hope in 184849 on the site, an event commemorated by a cairn at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Wallace Street. Hope became a busy outpost during the Fraser River gold rush in the late 1850s. Now a major railway and highway junction, its economy depends largely on lumbering, mining (nickel and copper), and tourism (based on such local attractions as the Fraser River Canyon and Skagit Valley). Inc. village, 1929; town, 1965. Pop. (1991) 3,147.