The first meeting of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arkansas occurred in 1835 under the direction of missionaries Wilford Woodruff and Henry Brown. Missionaries continued to preach in Arkansas after the main body of Church members moved to Utah Territory in the late 1840s. In 1857, Parley P. Pratt, a member of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was murdered near Van Buren, Arkansas.
During the American Civil War and in its immediate aftermath, the Church’s presence in Arkansas was severely limited. Then, in 1875, missionaries baptized nearly 90 people in the Des Arc area — “many of the best citizens of the region,” it was reported. In 1877, the Des Arc congregations moved approximately 27 families and 125 people to Utah by wagon. In 1969 the Church formed its first stake in Arkansas, centered in Little Rock. Elder David A. Bednar of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was a prominent member of the Church in Arkansas during the 1980s and 1990s. Bednar was on the faculty of the University of Arkansas and served as a stake president.
There are currently more than 30,000 Church members living in Arkansas organized into seven stakes. In October 2019, the Church announced its plans to construct a temple in Bentonville.
