[1] The region contains portions of Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, and South Arkansas as well as the extreme southeastern tip of Oklahoma, in McCurtain County (part of Choctaw Country), partly centered upon the Red River,[1] which flows along the Texas–Oklahoma state line into Southwestern Arkansas and Northwest Louisiana.

The region is alternatively, although seldom in most media and promotional parlance, referred to as "Arklatexoma", which more inclusively encompasses McCurtain County and other parts of extreme Southeastern Oklahoma that lie along the Red River.

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.

A notable occurrence of severe flooding occurred in March 2016, after torrential rains caused a rapid rise of many local waterways, displacing upwards of 3,500 people from their homes across Caddo and Bossier parishes and adjacent areas of Northwest Louisiana that lie along the Red River.

The region is in the western section of the "Dixie Alley" tornado climatology region, where tornadogenesis is most often attributed by high precipitation supercell thunderstorms—within which tornadoes are often partially or fully wrapped in curtains of heavy rain, impairing them from being seen by storm spotters and chasers, law enforcement, and the public—due to an increase of moisture from proximity to the nearby Gulf of Mexico.

On March 1, 1948, Shreveport radio station KWKH launched a country music variety show called the Ark-La-Tex Jubilee, followed a month later by the long-running and influential Louisiana Hayride program.

Named after Stephen F. Austin, who led the second and most successful colonization of the region that would become the state of Texas through the migration of 300 families from other parts of the United States in 1825, the former of the two major universities was founded as a teachers' college in 1923 as a result of legislation authored by State Senator Wilfred Roy Cousins, Sr.[22] Louisiana Tech opened in 1894 (as the Industrial Institute and College of Louisiana) to provide educational subjects pertaining to the arts and sciences for the development of an industrial economy in Louisiana post-Reconstruction.

Louisiana Tech also operates a satellite campus in Shreveport as well as classes at the Academic Success Center and Barksdale Air Force Base Instructional Site in Bossier City, and at the CenturyLink corporate headquarters in Monroe.

Arkadelphia is home to two liberal arts institutions: Henderson State University (founded in 1890 as Arkadelphia Methodist College), which is the only member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges based in Arkansas and announced plans to join the Arkansas State University System in October 2019,[24][25] and Ouachita Baptist University, a private, Baptist college affiliated with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (opened in 1886).

General and limited commercial aviation is additionally available at several smaller airfields in the Ark-La-Tex; Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (IATA: TYR; ICAO: KTYR), a city-owned public use airport in Tyler; offers service to and from Dallas/Fort Worth International and, on a seasonal basis, Denver International, respectively, via American Eagle and Frontier Airlines.

East Texas Regional Airport (IATA: GGG; ICAO: KGGG), located nine miles (14 km) south of Longview, is used for general aviation and military training but also provides connector service to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport via American Airlines and American Eagle.

Exclusively general aviation service is provided by Angelina County Airport (IATA: LFK; ICAO: KLFK), located 8.05 miles (12.96 km) southwest of downtown Lufkin; A.L.

Regional Airport (IATA: OCH; ICAO: KOCH), located one mile (1.6 km) outside Loop 224 northwest of TX State Highway 7; and Natchitoches Regional Airport (ICAO: KIER), located 2.3 miles (3.7 km) south of downtown Natchitoches.

In response to widespread opposition from environmental groups and property rights activists, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced in June 2008 that it would complete I-69 through upgrades to the existing spans of U.S. 59, U.S. 77 and U.S. 281 to Interstate standards through rural areas, with bypasses around urban centers along the route, which will be financed through private sector investment.

One of the current segments, SIU 16, covers areas of East Texas to the northeast of Nacogdoches, extending until it terminates at U.S. 171 near Stonewall.

River transportation is available through two inland multi-modal transportation and distribution centers along the Red River: the 2,300-acre (3.6 sq mi) Port of Caddo-Bossier, located at the head of navigation on the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway (4 miles [6.4 km] south of Shreveport on LA Highway 1), and the 700-acre (1.1 sq mi) Natchitoches Parish Port, located on Louisiana Highways 6 and 486 (U.S. 71/U.S.

The port—which houses more than 17 freight and shipping companies—links the Ark-La-Tex to domestic and international markets via the Mississippi River, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.