State?s Beauty Trips Tourists

We forget how beautiful this state is.

A couple of recent drives across the northern portion of Arkansas reminded us why an estimated 20.6 million people visited Arkansas in 2001. In places, like the stretch along U.S. Highway 412 from Alpena to Huntsville, the scenery is mistakable for an oil and canvas Monet.

It’s easy for us Northwest Arkansas business types, who increasingly slog to work through the gray malaise of urban sprawl, to forget all of the clear streams and muddy swimming holes that we have enjoyed across this state.

One recent three-day trout fishing trip to White Buffalo Resort in Buffalo City by a group of 10 Northwest Arkansas anglers was a good refresher course in “Natural State” 101.

For about $31 per person, the group spent three days catching browns and rainbows — although fewer than would have been possible with cooperative weather — at the confluence of the White and Buffalo rivers. Gas and supplies cost another $40, but it was well worth it.

Of the state’s 9,700 miles of streams and 600,000 acres of lakes, the White Buffalo area must be among the most remote and spiritually rewarding. It embodies the reasons people flock here — float-trip tubes, tire swings and the freedom of rolling radials.

During the quarter following September 11, when vacation meccas such as Orlando, Fla., saw major visitor shortfalls, Arkansas’ tourism was buoyed by its own simplicity. The state is not dependent on airline passengers or travel companies for the vast majority of its visitors.

Most visitors drive across the state line from places like Dallas and Oklahoma City to escape organized walkabouts and take in our pastoral getaways. They account for most of the estimated $4 billion tourists spend here annually. (See commentary, Page 26).

Benton and Washington counties attracted 920,041 tourists and 1.3 million tourists, respectively, in 2001. Those estimates are benchmarked from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s American Travel Surveys.

For the study, tourist trips or visits must include 100 miles or more of travel and an overnight stay. That would have qualified our group at Buffalo City.

And the good news is we were not the only ones roughing it with grilled steak and cabin cover. Three SUV loads of Oklahoma anglers, and a handful of others from Missouri and Texas, were making their contributions to Arkansas’ economy, too.