Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum

Anchored on the Arkansas River waterfront in North Little Rock, the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum offers a concentrated study of twentieth-century naval technology and service. Established in 2005 after local Navy veterans secured the return of USS Razorback (SS-394) from Turkey, the museum is built on three Army Corps of Engineers barges that function as galleries, staging space, and river observation platforms—an unusual infrastructure choice that suits an inland maritime collection. The Balao-class submarine Razorback, commissioned in 1944, anchors the site’s interpretive core. With wartime service in the Pacific and later careers through the Korean, Vietnam, and Cold War eras, it represents one of the longest-serving combat submarines still in existence and was present in Tokyo Bay at Japan’s surrender. Nearby, the Pearl Harbor veteran tug Hoga (YT-146) forms a chronological counterweight, tying Arkansas to the opening moments of the war. Inside the barges, exhibits on the battleship USS Arkansas (BB-33) and the nuclear-powered cruiser USS Arkansas (CGN-41) trace the state’s name across shifting naval doctrines, from dreadnought gunnery to the nuclear age.