ROGERS

city, Benton county, northwestern Arkansas, U.S. It lies about 20 miles (32 km) north of Fayetteville, near the Beaver Dam and Lake, in the Ozark Mountains. B.F. Sikes, who owned the original townsite, gave a right-of-way to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. The community, founded in May 1881 after the arrival of the first train, was incorporated one month later and named for C.W. Rogers, a railway official. It developed as a marketing and processing centre for poultry and farm produce. The economy has diversified to include tourism (based on the Beaver Lake district to the east) and the manufacture of steel and plastic products, firearms, insulated and tempered glass, tools, and telecommunications equipment. Pea Ridge National Military Park is 10 miles (16 km) north. It preserves the site of the Battle of Pea Ridge (March 78, 1862), the largest battle of the American Civil War fought west of the Mississippi River. Pop. (1990) 24,692; (1998 est.) 37,073.