Cave City chamber works through tornado, hopes to help with connections

A few years ago, Thriving Cities Lab, a think tank that focuses on community and civic development, did an analysis of Cave City, a town that sits on the Sharp and Independence county lines.

Business owner Brandi Shulz and her husband, State Rep. Bart Shulz, R-Sidney, attended a public meeting where the think tank, led by Dr. Scott Roulier, gave suggestions about how to improve the city.

It became clear to Shulz that the best solution for several of the community issues was to start a chamber of commerce, she told Talk Business & Politics. A board was formed, and Shulz was selected as executive director of the Cave City Area Chamber of Commerce.

“In the beginning, one of the main challenges I thought we would have was being in a small town and businesses buying in,” she said. “It turned out to be just the opposite. We had a lot of community buy-in from the beginning.”

Cave City is named for the Crystal River Cave that sits beneath the city. For thousands of years the cave had been used as a water source and shelter. Food was stored there because of the cool temperatures, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Archeological evidence suggests that Native Americans visited the cave, and after Arkansas became a state, local settlers used it as a water source.

Newspaper and other primary source documents show how it eventually became a tourist attraction and many thought the cave’s waters had medicinal qualities. Tours of the cave stopped years ago, but cave owners have recently reopened it and city officials are hopeful it will ignite a new wave of visitors, Shulz said.

Cave City’s signature event is its Watermelon Festival held each summer. The three-day event brought about 18,000 people to the town this past summer, Shultz said. It’s the largest free event in the region, she added.

What makes a Cave City watermelon so sweet?

“I don’t grow watermelons, but I’ve been told it’s the sandy soil structure that makes them sweet,” she said.

When the chamber was formed, Shulz said she had a goal to have 50 members by the end of year one, but privately she hoped for closer to 100. At the year mark, it had 107 members, she said.

One event that deeply impacted the business community was a tornado that ripped through the heart of the city in March. At least 20 businesses had minor to major damage. A funeral home, hair salon, auto parts store, a dental office and pharmacy were destroyed during the twister.

The chamber was set to start a membership drive when the twister struck and that made it more difficult, she said. Despite the damage, the community seemed to bond as the cleanup unfolded and the rebuilding began. All of those businesses are in various stages of repair, and several have reopened for business, she added.

“I’m happy to say it seems like everyone is starting to get back to normal.”

Some of the major findings by the think tank involved connectivity, and the lack of broadly dispersed leadership. For example, city officials are required to spend their time operating the city and might not have time to connect businesses with event organizers, she said. The chamber can now be that conduit. The chamber is now charged with developing new events, applying for revitalization funds and even connecting programs and students in the school system with civic leaders, events and programs.

Shulz said she has several goals in the coming year. She wants to maintain and grow memberships. The city has a “pocket park” that officials want to develop. Some of that started this past summer with a movie in the park night. Plans are underway to start a Founders Day festival. The city has been named as a “Main Street Community” and the main thoroughfare through town has been named “The Heart of Cave City.”

Another goal is the beautification of the city. City officials want to beautify green spaces and revitalize older buildings. Shulz said she is pleased with the public’s support of the initiatives.

Businesses in surrounding areas may join the chamber, Shulz said. They try to work with the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce because many businesses and people from the community are connected to the Independence County seat that is only 15 minutes away.

Despite the problems created by the tornado, Shulz thinks this first year has gone about as well as she could have hoped.

“I’m happy to say it seems like everyone is starting to get back to normal,” she said.