Regional Tourism Bearing Fruit

Northeast Arkansas has a lot going for it, especially when it comes to tourism and the history of the area, a pair of area development officials told state legislators Thursday.

John Faulkner, with the Lawrence Group, and East Arkansas Planning and Development District executive director Melissa Rivers spoke to the state House and Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development committees during a meeting at Arkansas State University.

Rivers told legislators about a 2012 report from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, noting tourism has a $480 million impact on the state’s economy.

Locally, people have an opportunity to visit several places like the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess, the Hemingway-Pfeiffer museum in Piggott and the agricultural history at Wilson, Rivers said.

Faulkner is working with Missouri-based financier Gaylon Lawrence on a plan to revitalize Wilson.

Wilson, in Mississippi County, was a company town named after the Wilson family. The family had many ties to agriculture in Mississippi County as well as Arkansas State University, going back nearly 100 years.

The family sold its holdings to Lawrence in 2010 for a reported $150 million.

Faulkner said the city’s café reopened this year after being closed. Other plans call for the Hampson Archeological State Park to be moved to Wilson, building 30 rooms for lodging in a building on the town square, opening a private school and talking to visitors about the agricultural roots of the town.

In the interim, officials have worked with AT&T to get faster bandwidth in Wilson as well as offering free WiFi to residents and visitors alike, Faulkner said.

Faulkner said the museum, which is now located outside the town, has pottery and ruins from the Nodena settlement that were discovered in the 1950s. Faulkner said he believes the town’s history, as well as its present, can bring people to the area.

“Wilson, it is a great place to tell a story,” Faulkner said.

WALK THE LINE
Just down Arkansas 14 is the Cash boyhood home. Ruth Hawkins, an official with the Arkansas State University Delta Heritage Program, said Wednesday the home and the nearby Dyess colony building stay busy.

“We have people here every day,” Hawkins said, noting they have received visitors from England, Germany, Norway and Wales in recent weeks.

The building, in the center of town, has displays about Cash and the creation of the town in the 1930s. Hawkins said the buildings will not only provide a history lesson, it will also provide a boost to the area economy.

Officials anticipate between 30,000 and 50,000 people to visit Dyess each year, pumping about 100 jobs and $10 million a year into the regional economy, Hawkins said.

REGIONAL FRUIT
Rivers said while the area has benefitted from tourism, the overall region faces many issues.

A program, called reNEW East Arkansas, has studied several issues including population losses, housing, infrastructure and healthcare, for nearly two years in the group’s 12-county area.

The counties include Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Greene, Lawrence, Lee, Mississippi, Phillips, Poinsett, Randolph and St. Francis counties.

Rivers said only Craighead and Greene counties are projected to have increased population numbers over the next 10 years.

However, she said each of the 12 counties are working on issues in a regional approach to try to solve problems.

One of those projects involves building a biking/walking trail on the Mississippi River levees north of West Memphis.

Rivers said the project is in its preliminary stages and that officials will be working with the National Park Service on the project.

Alan McVey, executive director for the ASU Delta Center for Economic Development, said the work done in the region, including towns like Wilson, has begun to bear some proverbial fruit.

“What they are doing in Wilson is phenomenal. They had meetings and asked for input,” McVey said.