Patti DeLano - Arkansas Off the Beaten Path®: A Guide to Unique Places

Patti DeLano is a travel writer and photographer who has lived in the Ozarks of Missouri and vacationed across the border in Arkansas for more than twenty years. She has also written Missouri Off the Beaten Path and Kansas Off the Beaten Path for GPP. Now she lives aboard Sailing Vessel Serafina in Venice, Florida, and is planning to find islands off the beaten path in the Caribbean.

Finding offbeat places in Arkansas often means following directions like, You know where that big ole tree used to be? or Hang a left there, you know, by that red barn?

So I owe a lot to friends like Barbara and John Glover and Art and Terry Hapke, who offered hospitality and help from their homes in Arkansas and spent endless hours helping me find places as common as antiques shops and as remote as an elephant farm. My mom and dad, Sally and John Randazzo, also endured mountain roads and odd places, with the sense of humor I love them for, as we wandered around the state.

This edition is in memory of my husband, Bob, who had an instinct for finding unique eating places and unlikely shortcuts not shown on any map (even when he had never been there before). Serendipitous travel with him to odd places was always fun. Going it alone will not be the same.

Northeast Arkansas

Things dont change much in the Ozarksdogwoods, redbuds, and wild plum bloom in the spring; wildflowers color the meadows of summer; and thousands of acres of autumn forest splash color over the hills where the clear streams and rivers still sparkle in the sun. The colors of the Ozarks shift like a kaleidoscope, but things in the Ozarks dont change much.

The pace is slower here. The people are friendly. In a place that did not have a paved highway until after World War II, a culture emerged unique in the country. In fact, many people here insist that the Ozarks should have constituted its own state instead of meandering across two state lines.

Four beautifully different seasons bring vacationers to the Ozarks year-round. Hikers follow trails up grades to towering bluffs that cast soft shadows on the waters and offer views of pristine valleys. Gentle wildlife hides in the forest, and the scenes change with light and shadow.

These gentle, timeworn hills roll across the horizon without jagged peaks or sharp edges. A palette of colorspale-pink anemone in the early spring, soft shades of green in summer, blazing gold and crimson in fall, gray-green rock faces and clean white snow in wintersplash the canvas of cobalt-blue sky.

Spring slips into the state earlywhile snow still clings to the rest of the heartlandand woods burst with the glory of dogwoods, redbuds, jonquils, sarvis, and wild azaleas before summers rich green canopy shades the trails of the quiet foothills.

Bed-and-breakfast inns are not too common in Arkansas, and many of them are hidden in the woods. They are all worth searching out, so many of them are included here. Arkansas and Ozarks Bed and Breakfast is a referral service for a number of the bed-and-breakfasts. Call Ken or Lynn Griffin at (800) 233-2777 or visit their Web site: www.thecedarsbnb.com.

Batesville calls itself the Gateway to the Ozarks; it is a logical place for us to start. The town was founded in 1822 where the Southwest Trail met the White River crossing. (Some folks decided not to cross and stayed.) Arkansass oldest existing city, it is now the home of Lyon College, and there is always something interesting going on in this college town. The annual Ozark Scottish Festival, held in the spring, features competitions in bagpiping, drumming, dancing, and athletics at the college campus. The Batesville Air Festival, held each autumn, has thirty hot-air balloons in the air daily, along with antique and rare aircraft. The Old Independence Regional Museum opened in 1998 in the old National Guard Armory at Ninth and Vine (308 South Ninth Street) in Batesville. Visitors walk into a 12,500-square-foot Works Progress Administration building made of native stone. Built in the 1930s, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum represents a twelve-county area and is a genealogists dream with a climate-controlled archival vault to store rare and fragile documents, photographs, and fabrics. The large 2,680-square-foot gallery houses major exhibits, with a comfortable study area for researchers. Continuing exhibits showcase Native American and early settlement life in the area and the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Call (870) 793-2121 or visit www.oirm.org for more information. Hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors, and $1 for children. If you have a sweet tooth, head downtown to Arkansaw Traveller Gourmet Foods. In this little storefront shop, you can watch Donice and Charles Woodward make molded chocolate candiesoffered in white, dark, and diet chocolateas well as jam, jelly, butters, roasted pecans, and peanut or pecan brittle, all available to taste. The Woodwards ship jelly all over the world. The shop is located at 1368 Neeley; call or fax (870) 793-7936 for information. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays and until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

trivia

The word Arkansas comes from the word Kansas, people of the south wind or downstream people. But spelling the state name has never been easy. Explorers used Arkansoa, Arkancas, and Arkensa, to name a few. Not everyone agreed on the pronunciationwas it Ar-KANSAS or AR-kan-saw? The legislature settled on AR-kan-saw in 1881.

If you happen to be in Batesville in August, stick around for the Annual White River Water Carnival, Arkansass oldest annual water event. The Grand Parade, food, arts and crafts, and live music are offered every year. Call the Batesville Chamber at (870) 793-2378.

Newark is a restored 1880s community situated between Jacksonport and Batesville on Highway 69. It was an old railroad town built where the Ozark Mountains meet the flatlands of the Arkansas Delta. Native son and local historian Bill Freeze has undertaken a personal crusade to bring the good times back to this railroad town. His fathers mercantile store opened in 1922 and operated until 1979. Bill runs The Nut House, on Highway 122, where he sells pecans from his familys grove on the White River, plus candy, antiques, and other good things. It is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day (870-799-3244).

Cave Courts Motel

Cave City

(870) 283-5010

Pearls Unique

Newport

(800) 637-3233

www.pearlsunique.com

Stone County Ironworks

Mountain View

(870) 269-IRON

www.stoneiron.com

McSpaddens Dulcimer Shop

Mountain View

(870) 269-4313

www.mcspaddendulcimers.com

Ozark Folk Center

Mountain View

(870) 269-3851

Blanchard Springs Caverns

Fifty-Six

(870) 757-2211 or (888) 757-2246

Happy Lonesome Log Cabins

Calico Rock

(870) 297-8764

www.bbonline.com/ar/HLcabins

Nature Scent

Heber Springs

(501) 362-2449

www.naturescent.com

Captains House

Heber Springs

(501) 362-3963

Bill also owns Nut House Antiques