A Gem and A Star

April 10 – April 18, 2023

We’ve long anticipated visiting the northwest corner of Arkansas.  We’ve heard so many wonderful things about the area over the years!  Even Arkansas considers this area to be their gem!  We stayed at Dam Site Lake Campground during our visit, which is a Corps of Engineering site.  Dam Site Lake Campground is located on the northeast side of Beaver Lake and boasts amazing lakeside sites!  It only offers water and electric hookups, but for the view we had, it was well worth not having a sewer connection. 

Beaver Lake was created when Beaver Dam was constructed to control the massive flooding White River would experience.  Originally, the dam was planned to be built near the town of Beaver -- hence, the name!  When a better location for building the dam was found, the site changed, but the name stuck.  This wasn’t a problem for the small town of Beaver.  They may have lost the dam, but Beaver retained its treasure, the historic Beaver Bridge!  This bridge was built in 1949 and is only eleven feet wide!  Affectionately, the bridge is known as Arkansas’s “Little Golden Gate”.  Prior to this bridge, Wilson A. Beaver (the founder of the town) operated a ferry to cross the White River.  Interestingly, in 1857, the ill-fated Baker-Francher emigrant wagon train used the ferry in Beaver to cross the White River on their way west.  

It was a mile hike from our campsite to Beaver Dam, where we not only found a beautiful view of the dam and the White River below, but also found the Dogwood Trailhead!  The trail itself is 1.4 miles but, when you add in the mile to and from the campground, it makes for a lovely walk!  The trail was appropriately named, as dogwood trees were dotted generously along the trail.  We had timed this one right, as both the dogwood and redbud trees were in full bloom during our stay!

Beaver Dam

Bluffs along the  Dogwood Trail

The causeway leading to the campground.  That's our red truck over there!

Eureka Springs was a short ten miles from the campground, making it within easy reach!  The historic town has got to be one of the most eclectic towns we have visited!  This artsy community is nestled in the hills of the Ozark Mountains.  Its narrow, winding streets meander whimsically throughout the hills.  No two streets run parallel to each other, as the terrain of the town doesn’t permit such an organized layout!

Shopping in Eureka Springs with Sheri and Dale!

Reminiscent of Boston’s historic red trail, Eureka Springs has a “Red Curb” trail.  These red curbs guide you past beautiful Victorian homes, many historic buildings and the quant shopping district!

Saint Elizabeth was a fun stop on the tram ride we took through town.  This church is listed in Ripley’s Believe It or Not for being the only church where you have to go through the bell tower in order to enter the church! 

Crescent Hotel and Spa was another interesting stop on the tram ride!  This historic building has served Eureka Springs in a wide variety of ways.  Crescent Hotel and Spa opened in 1886 as a luxury hotel that brought rich and famous guests to Eureka Springs from around the world!  In 1908, it reopened as the Crescent College for Women.  Then, in 1937, Dr. Norman G. Baker took advantage of the “healing waters” Eureka Springs offered and opened a cancer hospital in the building.  Interesting side note:  Dr. Baker moved his patients from Iowa to this location after being run out of Iowa for practicing medicine without a license.  This didn’t last long as, in 1940, he was sentenced to four years of prison in Leavenworth Penitentiary after defrauding cancer patients out of over four million dollars!  This building has gone full circle and is currently back to being a grand hotel and spa! Today, the menu for the restaurant located inside parodies the hotel’s sordid past as a so-called hospital, offering “Check Ins” such as Crabby Quacks and Examination ‘rooms.  Salads on their “Turning Green” menu offer Established Remedy, Traditional Prescription and Chicken Flew.  Although we didn’t observe any paranormal activity while there, this building is said to be one of the most haunted buildings in America!

This former Texaco station is now a bungalow, with the gasoline pump handles now serving as door handles!

One of the results of the annual chain saw carving contest!

Crescent Hotel and Spa

Bentonville was another nearby town we enjoyed spending some time in!  You may recognize Bentonville as the home of Walmart.  Sam Walton opened his first 5&10 on Bentonville’s town square in 1950.  Today, this origin of his fame is being restored into a museum.  

Bentonville's Town Square

Where it all started!

Bentonville also is home to the first-ever bikeable building!  Built in 2022, Ledger has six stories with outdoor ramps allowing you to bike or walk to the top!  A round trip tour is 1.5 miles, offering fun mosaics inset into the concrete ramps along the way.  A stop at the coffee shop located on the ground floor of Ledger provides for a delicious treat to take with you if you choose to walk!

One of the mosaics along the Ledger bike ramp

Look closely and you can see a bike climbing up the building!

We spent a couple of days visiting Bentonville.  Our first trip into town happened to be on National Grilled Cheese Day, so we couldn’t help but grab lunch at Sweet Freedom Cheese.  I’ve not ordered a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches when we dine out, but I can’t think there are any better grilled cheese sandwiches available anywhere!  They had created a special grilled cheese to honor the day and, simply said, it was delicious!!

 

The Four Horsemen grilled cheese made with Espelette Pepper sheep tomme, Smokin' Goat, Casatoca do Bifala, and Carr Valley Fontina - cow milk.  So yummy!

Probably our favorite activity in Bentonville was visiting Crystal Bridges! Sam Walton’s only daughter, Alice Walton, founded this amazing museum.  Inside, you find a wide assortment of original works from American artists.  We even found one of Clementine Hunter’s pieces!  The grounds surrounding the museum are equally as enjoyable.  Beautifully landscaped trails take you past interesting outdoor art making for an enjoyable stroll.  Included on the grounds is the Bachman Wilson House built by Frank Lloyd Wright.  A tour of the house, as well as admission to the museum, are available free of charge!  The Walton family has certainly done a lot to support and develop Bentonville.

A Clementine Hunter baptism painting.  Note the blend of Catholic and Baptist religions

Frank Lloyd Wright's Bachman Wilson House in the background

Once again, we were blessed with wonderful campground neighbors!  Dale and Sheri were very familiar with the area and had many wonderful recommendations of places to go and things to do during our stay.  It was fun touring Crystal Bridges with them and going out for dinner at Wright’s BBQ to celebrate my birthday.  Dale had recommended Shepherd of the Hills to me as one of his favorite books, and I had been looking around at various book stores for it.  The book was written in 1907 by Harold Bell Wright and is set in the Ozark Mountains that surround Eureka Springs -- I was intrigued!  I needn’t have shopped around for it, as Dale and Sheri surprised me with it at dinner!  I’m telling you, you meet the nicest people in the world in campgrounds!

Wright's BBQ - very possibly the best BBQ I've ever eaten!  Thanks for celebrating with me Sheri and Dale!

Standing 65.5 feet tall and located atop Magnetic Mountain is Christ of the Ozarks.  This giant statue was built in 1966 by Gerald L.K. Smith.  The park where the statue stands includes more than 20 trails!  We only had time to hike the Exodus Trail, but boy was it tempting to come back and hike a few of the other trails.  The trails were beautiful as they wound in and around the hills and were adorned with redbud and dogwood trees in full bloom. 

The Exodus Trail - no sign of any manna, only dogwoods!

It seems like so many places we visit display sections of the Berlin Wall!  It’s incredible to see pieces of art that had been painted on this imposing, life-threatening barrier.  The German words on the section of wall at Christ of the Ozarks translate as “Though I walk through the dark valley, I will not fear.”  It doesn’t take too much to imagine a fearless soul, standing in the shadows of night painting this.  

Here in the US, we take so much for granted!  My thanks go out to all of the veterans for the freedoms we have!

Sitting just outside of Eureka Springs you find Thorncrown Chapel.  Jim Reed, a retired schoolteacher, bought this property in 1971, envisioning a non-denominational pilgrimage chapel for meditation.  Jim commissioned E. Faye Jones, who studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright, to make his dream a reality.  Jones’ inspiration for this chapel came from Sainte Chapelle in Paris, France where the relic Crown of Thorns worn by Christ was once kept.   Desiring to preserve the natural setting of this chapel, Jones determined that no structural elements used to build the chapel could be larger than what two men could carry through the woods.  It really is an amazing spot to spend some quiet time.  The 425 windows this chapel contains make it a really unique and special place.

Having barely touched this Arkansas gem, it was time to move on.  Somehow, it always seems we are only able to scratch the surface of things to do and places to go when we are visiting an area.  This was no exception!

Maggie’s twins keep threatening to make an early arrival, so we decided to cut our visit in Missouri short and get a little closer to Iowa.  Hamilton, MO just happened to fit the bill for our next stop – more than 200 miles and less than 300 miles!  Hamilton is home to Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Jenny Doan’s story of how her quilting tutorials, with the help of her family, took their family from rags to riches is just incredible!  It was fun spending the better part of a day wandering through the many stores of Missouri Star Quilt Company, secretly wondering if there was any chance of actually running into Jenny.  At one point, I voiced my desire to Dick and his response was, “Who’s Jenny?”  Probably not a surprise, but I had assumed he had picked up on my admiration for this woman at some point.  It’s actually funny to know that after 41 years of marriage, three of which have been 24/7 togetherness, I still have a secret or two!

As luck would have it, a couple of hours later, Dick overheard some women talking about Jenny coming to the Main Store for a filming session.  Now, being fully informed of who Jenny is, Dick quickly passed the gossip on to me.  FYI, Jenny is even more charming in person than she is in the tutorials!

  

Home for this stop was A Country Charm RV Park.  This RV park is probably one of the smallest parks we have ever stayed at, but it has everything you need and, now that I think about it, everything you could want!  Especially appealing is that it is located one mile from a certain quilt shop I enjoy!

Armed with all of the fabric I could want for the next several projects I have in mind, we are headed yet further north!

Up next:  Waukee, Iowa!