This variety was listed as growing on Orcas by S.R.S. Gray in an 1891 Seattle Post Intelligencer article. It originated in Benton County Arkansas around 1870. It bears medium, round, dark red fruit. The flesh is firm and yellow. We have found seedling crosses of Arkansas Black on Lopez and Orcas, and located a living tree that was planted prior to 1894 still producing on west Orcas (and scions are available of both Arkansas Black and the seedling crosses through our annual scion exchange and grafting workshops on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan)..
You can view watercolors of Arkansas Black in the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection.