Little Rock is a element as good as a largest city of a U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had a competition of 699,757 people in a 2010 census. The MSA is in spin enclosed in a Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Arkansas Combined Statistical Area, that had a competition of 877,091 in a 2010 census, creation it a 47th largest sum statistical area in America. As of a 2010 US Census, Little Rock had a competition of 193,524. It is a county chair of Pulaski County. Located circuitously a geographic core of Arkansas, Little Rock derives a name from a little mill arrangement on a south bank of a Arkansas River called la Petite Roche (French: "the little rock"). The "little rock" was used by early waves trade as a branch indicate as good as became a obvious waves crossing. Archeological artifacts produce fact of Native Americans inhabiting Central Arkansas for thousands of years before to European settlers arrived. The early inhabitants competence have enclosed a Folsom people, Bluff Dwellers, as good as Mississippian note peoples who built dike mounds available in 1541 by Spanish commander Hernando de Soto's expedition. Historical tribes of a area enclosed a Caddo, Quapaw, Osage, Choctaw, as good as Cherokee. Little Rock was declared for a mill outcropping on a bank of a Arkansas River used by early travelers as a landmark. La Petite Roche (French for "the Little Rock"), declared in 1721 by French commander as good as merchant Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, conspicuous a passing from one to another from a boring Mississippi Delta fragment to a Ouachita Mountain foothills. Travelers referred to a area as "the Little Rock", as good as a branch indicate name stuck.