Arkansans lay claim to the invention of cheese dip. Originating in Hot Springs, cheese dip was invented when a Mexican man started serving melted cheese as a snack in a local restaurant in the 1930s. Cheese dip is different than the traditional Mexican dish queso, which is purely cheese. Cheese dip includes meats, vegetables, spices and any other special ingredients. As a result of cheese dip's origins, many Arkansas restaurants today boast special recipes for unique flavors of cheese dips.
The Bowie knife, also known as the "Arkansas toothpick" because of Arkansans' reputation for picking their teeth with a knife, was invented in the 1830s by a man named James Black. Black, a blacksmith who made a variety of knives, was charged with the task of making a knife for Jim Bowie, who was renowned for his propensity to get in knife fights. Black made a knife for Jim Bowie in the similar vein of his other knives, but many people call Jim Bowie's knife the first actual Bowie knife.
Bob Burns, in the early 1900s, invented a musical instrument that was made of a group of spare gas fittings and a whiskey funnel. The instrument gained a lot of notoriety, and people began to call it a "bazooka," a nonsensical term at the time. During World War II, an anti-tank weapon was invented elsewhere that looked similar to Burns' instrument. As a result, people began to call the weapon the "bazooka," after Burns' musical counterpart.
Ben Pearson, a man born in Saline County, engaged in numerous business exploits and projects, and one of these yielded the first archery tackle production system. Archery tackle, which refers to arrows, bows and other supplies needed for archery, was typically a homemade craft or made on a very small scale. Ben Pearson created the Ben Pearson Company in 1966, which toted the first mass-produced archery tackle. Today, the company still remains one of the largest suppliers of archery equipment.