Explorer’s Guide Arkansas

INTRODUCTION

So far, more than half of my career has been spent introducing folks from off (Arkansas-speak for non-Arkansans) to the richness and diversity of my state’s landscape and culture. For nearly a decade I freelanced as a film production crew member for visiting film companies: motion picture makers, documentarians, and broadcast commercial producers. They sought out our state for one of three reasons: their client was here, they needed our 5 percent rebate, or they needed to film our state Capitol. Its distinction as one of few that can pass as the nation’s Capitol inspired its use as a location for Under Siege in 1987, when fictional terrorists hit the building with a magical movie missile that actually did leave a blackened stain on the dome, providing fodder for the local op-ed page for months. It was last used in the filming of The Brotherhood in the early 1990s, when the crew left motorcycle skid marks on the marble stairway leading to the legislative chamber. As a production coordinator, I met the directors and producers at the airport when they arrived and shared heartfelt goodbyes on its tarmac when they left. My crews came from the East and West Coasts, Florida, and our neighboring states. Creative types come in all shapes and sizes, and there are more varieties of lifestyle out there than I realized, but the overwhelming majority of them used one word to sum up their experience in Arkansas: surprising. They were amazed at the diversity of our terrain and our natural beauty—even in our metropolitan areas—and astounded by the affordability and quality of our food, lodgings, and services. But what impressed them most was the graciousness and hospitality of our residents.

Years later, in another life, I escorted travel writers and editors researching stories on Arkansas destinations for their media outlets. It was my job to discuss with a journalist an assignment or area of interest, and then coordinate an itinerary and escort him or her during a tour of Arkansas. Many of them were quite jaded as travelers; their worldwide travels included all of the A-list vacation spots in the States and abroad, with first-class accommodations provided at no charge in many cases. And yet, as before, when asked to choose one word to describe their visit to our state, 90 percent of the people I asked said “surprising.” In 2008, the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism commissioned ERA Longwoods, a national tourism consulting company, to conduct a $250,000 study of our tourism industry. The results of that study were most surprising to Longwoods’ experts. Most significantly, the company said they had encountered something they had never seen before: a location burdened by a preconceived negative image that was completely dispelled following a visit to the location. We like to think of ourselves as a boutique destination, showcasing Mother Nature’s splendor alongside upscale spas, Euro-Ozarko bistros, and independent art galleries. But a case can also be made that we are America’s Amazon, as our state remains virgin, unexplored territory for a majority of our country’s travelers. It is my hope that this guide will ensure that your visit to Arkansas is not surprising because I have armed you for your journey with insight into our culture, a native’s guide to good eats and cozy shelter, and imagery to whet your appetite for our scenic vistas. Unless otherwise noted, the destinations listed in this guide are open year-round.

In 1987, the state changed its nickname from the Land of Opportunity to the Natural State in deference to the uniqueness and abundance of our natural resources. Arkansas is home to the only public diamond mine in the world, the first federally protected river, the first national park (technically), and it boasts one of the few state park systems offering free interpretive services and programs. There are 52 state parks within the state’s 53,000 square miles, ensuring we are never more than an hour from homage to our heritage. Samuel Davies, the system’s first director, instilled in park staff and his family a commitment to not only preserve, protect, and perpetuate Arkansas resources through a state park system, but also to ensure that they remained economically accessible to the state’s population. The mantle was carried by grandson Richard Davies until his retirement in 2015, and the state’s ability to ride the tide of change without eroding the environment is testament to its success nurturing conservation in Arkansas.

Hunters and birders lobby side by side to protect our forests, a partnership resulting in habitat that protects a number of endangered species—most recently and notably, the ivory-billed woodpecker. Our 600,000 acres of lakes are considered among the purest in the country, delighting divers and photographers beneath the surface and skiers, paddlers, and fishermen above. Our clean air refreshes the mind and body of the earthbound and fuels the flight of avian migration on the Mississippi Flyway and hang gliders along the River Valley.

Arkansas’s state park system promotes six natural divisions in the state: the Ozark Mountains, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Arkansas’s Delta), Crowley’s Ridge, the Ouachita Mountains, the Arkansas River Valley, and the West Gulf Coastal Plain. Each region is distinct environmentally, and most communities in the state developed their economies by tapping into their natural resources.

From the oil fields of southern Arkansas to the cotton fields of the Delta to the sparkling gemstones of the Ouachitas, the state’s marriage to Mother Nature encouraged us to embrace forward progress in harmony with our place on the planet. Our fidelity to our commitment leaves Arkansas perfectly poised to enchant the modern traveler whose eco-morality now values, yea prizes, our Natural State.

It’s easy to look at a topographical map of Arkansas and draw a diagonal line across the center of the state, dividing it into two distinct regions—the highlands in the northwest and the lowlands in the southeastern half of the state. A closer look at the geology of these areas reveals three distinct divisions within the two that not only shaped the land but also the people and their culture in distinctly different ways. The highlands are characterized by two mountain regions: the Ozark Plateau and the Ouachita Mountains, with the Arkansas River Valley between them. The Mississippi Alluvial Plain and Crowley’s Ridge within, and the West Gulf Coastal Plain compose the geological divisions of the lowlands in southeast Arkansas. I have never found myself into geology, and until writing the first edition of this guide I would have taken your bet that I never would be. But taking that closer look into the geology of my home state helped me to see it in a new light, and I have a new appreciation for the possibilities that await when you travel Arkansas. You can visit, say, Village Creek State Park in Wynne and have a blast for a week riding your horse through 25 miles of golden hickory and beech trees without ever noticing the point at which you cross over The Trail of Tears. On the one hand, you would have still enjoyed your vacation, and likely you would greatly appreciate the park’s Horse Hilton, considered the best in a four-state area. But that would also be a shame, because Village Creek is one of few places in the country where you can actually stand on the ground Native Americans walked during their historic exodus. But if you know the geological history of Crowley’s Ridge—the park’s natural region—before you go, you will not only mark the moment you cross the tragic trail, you might even recognize the botanical banners flagging water and the path ahead. Sometimes a tree is more than just a tree.

images — HORSEBACK RIDING AT VILLAGE CREEK STATE PARK ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & TOURISM

You will find within these pages the where and the when of Arkansas, and also the why. In some cases, such as the West Gulf Coastal Plain, lodging is divided because the region is very large and attraction driven, so it is organized to help you lay your head at night in the vicinity of the place you plan to play during the day.

The Ozarks Plateau is characterized by its flat-topped mountains, heavily eroded over millions of years by the many mighty rivers that originate here. You will find three distinct regions within it, each with its own topography, history, and culture: the Springfield Plateau, the Salem Plateau, and the Boston Mountains. The communities that formed on the Springfield Plateau capitalized on its extensive, level prairies, advancing transportation to their area and ultimately their economies. Today, these communities unite as the Northwest Corridor, one of the most progressive sectors of the state with an economy that continuously shows growth, even when national trends decline. This is where you will find the state’s newest airport, XNA; Fort Smith; and the belle of this edition of this guide, Bentonville.

Just north and east of the Springfield Plateau is the Salem Plateau, at an elevation of 1,560 feet. Eureka Springs lies on the cusp between the two plateaus, giving it its mountainous character. The Salem Plateau also had fairly level hilltops, described as barrens, with rocky soil not easily adaptable for agriculture, and towns and villages here struggled for traction against the rugged terrain.

That all changed in the late nineteenth century, when interest developed in the healing waters of Eureka Springs. The home of numerous cold-water springs soon became a hot destination for tourists, as the little village’s business community developed to support the temporary residents that came in droves during the high-season months of spring, summer, and fall. You will find Eureka Springs has preserved the quirky charm that created its special sense of place in the late 1800s, as well as the majority of its architecture; the entire downtown is on the National Historic Register.

As you travel east across the Salem Plateau, the rivers that originate in the west grow in size and importance in the development of the towns that formed along their shores. Mountain Home is the largest, due to its location between the two reservoirs (Bull Shoals Lake and Lake Norfork) created by the US Army Corps of Engineers’ damming projects on the White and Norfork Rivers. When cold waters released from the dams damaged the ecosystem beneath them, the Corps built trout hatcheries as an alternative for local communities. Trout fishing on the White River is now world famous, and resorts and guide services are major contributors to local economies. As I mentioned before, my job duties once included escorting writers researching travel stories around Arkansas, usually with the state, local chamber, or civic-minded destination footing the bill. Most of them felt their time in the state was too short to see and do everything of interest to them. But there was only one time when the writer actually took a vacation day to extend his stay, and he was fishing the White River.

The highest of the three regions, the Boston Plateau, skirts the other two along the southern border of the Ozark Plateau, parallel to and north of I-40. More commonly known as the Boston Mountains, this plateau’s rugged topography and its inherently narrow and winding roads made for arduous travel, and the communities that developed here are small, and few and far between. This is the land of the Ozark Mountaineer, isolated by the lack of a solid transportation system and forced to adapt to that isolation with self-sufficiency. The largest community in the Boston Mountains is Clinton, which lies in the wide valley of the Little Red River. Thirty miles from Clinton, as the crow flies, the Ozark Folk Center State Park will allow you to immerse yourself in the Ozark Mountain way of life through living histories, music and craft demonstrations, and the carefree feel of a simpler way of life.

At the southern perimeter of the Ozark Plateau, the Arkansas River Valley is a roughly 40-mile-wide trough between the Ouachita and Ozark mountain ranges. This region has the flat-topped mountains of the Ozarks in the north, the rolling ridges of the Ouachitas in the south, with the Arkansas River and its wide bottomlands of fertile soil between. The combination of rich farmland and river transportation was a winning one for communities that prospered along the river’s banks. Arkansas’s winemakers began tending their vines in the River Valley over a hundred years ago. On the state’s western border with Oklahoma, Fort Smith, the state’s second-largest city, was the last trading post before entering the western plains. Arkansas’s frontier heritage is here, marked at the Fort Smith National Historic Site, and in 2019 the US Marshals Museum will open as its most prestigious local attraction. You will find not only the first state park along the Arkansas River Valley, on Petit Jean Mountain, but also the system’s single greatest capital investment in the $33 million lodge atop Mount Magazine.

The long, narrow ridges of the Ouachita Mountains run east to west across the central portion of the state and harbor natural treasures of national significance. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson set aside Arkansas land for federal protection of the geothermal waters that boiled naturally beneath its surface, technically making it America’s first national park. Hot Springs National Park can also lay claim as the nation’s first spa, dating back to the days of Hernando de Soto. We’ll talk more about this when we get to the Hot Springs section. By the 1920s, the healing waters of Hot Springs were reportedly protected by both the National Park Service and Al Capone, who declared the streets of the spa city a no combat zone when he and the boys were in town. The town became a smaller, mid-America version of Vegas, with thoroughbred racing at Oaklawn Park, casinos, and elegant bathhouses, but set in a lush national forest rather than a desert. Hot Springs is even more charming today, despite the fact it is no longer under Mafia protection. Oaklawn’s season is extended, thanks to modern technology and simulcasting, and you can play the ponies there year-round now. The addition of electronic gaming, following many years of prohibition, hearkens back to the town’s colorful past. The story is told at the new Gangster Museum, the only facility in the country willing to talk.

The Ouachitas are also one of a few places in the world with substantial enough quartz deposits to warrant commercial mining. Though their exact size is unknown, the deposits beneath the earth’s crust at Mount Ida are considered world-class for both their size and quality. But the individual crystals themselves are also prized for their colorless, nearly clear terminals, the mineral’s manifestation of the pure waters of western Arkansas. You will find Mount Ida quartz displayed in Europe and on the ground of several private and two public mines in this small town 30 minutes west of Hot Springs.

Roughly a third of the lowlands of Arkansas fall within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, more commonly known as the Delta. Oddly enough, it is technically not a delta or flood plain, which refers to an area often inundated when a river or stream overflows. The relatively flat alluvial plain was created by millions of years of deposits and encompasses a far larger area representing the region where the flood plain shifted during geological time. This distinctive and unique corridor of geology extending down the heart of the United States is clearly visible to astronauts in orbit and in satellite imagery on cloudless days in summer months. Arkansas’s Delta is both wild, with huge tracts of remote, nearly virgin woods, and cultivated, with thousands of acres of farmland. Its rich and fertile soil makes it one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. Its fields are filled with lush crops of cotton and rice, soybeans and corn. Its agricultural history predates European settlement of the state; Hernando de Soto examined fields tended by Quapaw tribes during a Delta tour in the winter of 1541. With a climate perfectly suited for cotton, plantation farmers built huge spreads throughout the Delta, employing slave labor. Historic battle sites and Civil War markers have replaced the plantations prevalent in the 1800s, with only Lakeport Plantation in south Arkansas remaining as an example of the antebellum showplaces that once stood on the shores of the Mississippi River.

This is a land that has known both feast and famine, and its people have learned to appreciate nature’s bounty and fear its wrath. Their ability to endure is evident in levees that hold back the mighty river, irrigation channels that nurture their fields, and museums that recount their struggle. These are the levees Johnny Cash, as well as countless bluesmen, sing about in their songs about life in the Delta. Cash’s boyhood home and the restored colony at Dyess have attracted thousands of visitors from around the world looking for the humble beginnings that inspired the legendary man in black.

Completely surrounded by the Delta is the smallest geological region in Arkansas, Crowley’s Ridge. Covered with dense vegetation, it rises 200 feet above the landscape, high ground that provided shelter from the floods below. Early Native Americans were the first to seek safe passage on the ridge, and you can follow the footsteps of their successors on the Trail of Tears at Village Creek State Park. We know now that the particular type of fragile loess soil on the ridge is only found in one other place on earth (the other location is Croatia), but to the ridge’s first settlers it was simply safe and fertile ground on which they could build families and towns. The Delta’s largest city, Jonesboro, is at the northern end of the ridge. The city is the center of culture and education in east Arkansas and active in the preservation of the natural and cultural history of the entire region.

The West Gulf Coastal Plain, the last of Arkansas’s natural regions, is famous for its geology, as it encompasses the only diamond mine in North America as well as being the center of our oil industry. The Gulf Coastal Plain is also the focus of much of the timber industry in the state. Crater of Diamonds State Park makes national news regularly for the diamonds recovered from its public fields. The park averages two diamonds a day found by treasure seekers who pay a small fee to keep the diamonds, minerals, and gemstones they find scattered over its 37 acres. Looking for the diamonds is so easy a baby could do it, and it was a favorite activity for my kids until they were well into their teens. Finding them is not so easy; I haven’t found one yet. But the experience is a blast and I go every year and come back with a bucket full of jasper, agate, quartz, and other minerals that are plentiful at the park.

We also have our own black gold, Texas tea, in the fields around El Dorado in southeast Arkansas. An oil boom in the 1920s brought instant wealth and wild times to the town. The beautifully restored downtown now sets the stage for summer reenactments of the Showdown at Sunset, a legendary gunfight that took place on the courthouse steps in its wilder days. The downtown was declared a National Historic District in 2004 and is a popular shopping destination for the entire state.

The Little Rock/North Little Rock area is the geographic center of the state; parts of it fall in the Ouachitas, the Delta, and the West Gulf Coastal Plain. I have included it in the last region for a number of reasons, both philosophical in nature as well as organizational. An important factor was a teacher’s reference guide on the natural divisions that was updated in 2008 and definitively placed Little Rock in the Coastal Plain. If you’re reading this and you live in Little Rock and always considered yourself a resident of the Delta, you still are. That is your tourism region, not your geological one. Show your physiographic pride in the West Gulf Coastal Plain.

An understanding of the natural regions should help you understand and appreciate the diverse communities and cultures in the Natural State. We can seem more than a little schizophrenic to the casual observer, even to each other. The geology of our state blessed each community with its own unique and rich natural resources and also created the natural barriers that isolated each of them from the rest of the state. We didn’t come together to present a unified image of Arkansas to the rest of the world until the mid-1970s.

That was also about the time that Jim Gann became Arkansas’s first state park interpreter at Logoly State Park, and the state began to formally explain our unique natural gifts to visitors. It is also when Richard Davies took over the helm as director of Arkansas’s state parks system, and we began to verbalize a cohesive story of national interest. And while Henri de Tonti may have established Arkansas’s first hub of hospitality at Arkansas Post in 1686, the state’s tourism industry was born in the mid-1970s, when our leadership began to reflect a lifetime of passion and respect for Arkansas’s extraordinary natural resources.

Today’s parks are partially funded by a conservation tax that provides perpetual funding for maintenance, interpretation, and security that drew strong support from Arkansans, some of whom have literally grown up in these parks. Nearly 100 years after the inception of the system, hundreds of thousands of Arkansans have fished state park lakes, toured their historic buildings, and camped under the shelter of their trees. Always economically challenged, our education system has relied on Arkansas’s state parks to fill the void in our kids’ educations when municipal monies ran light, and the parks responded by ramping up the quantity and quality of interpretive programming to a nationally recognized level. They are a great place for you, too, to start exploring Arkansas.