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FLOAT YOUR BOAT ... We started out with lunch at a floating Subway at the marina, the only Subway sandwich shop on a floating dock. Then after a chat with Bill Barnes, the current owner of Mountain Harbor Resort and the marina and son of the founder Hal Barnes, and some petting and head-scratching of two of the many family dogs, we met Todd Gadberry, marina manager, our boat captain who took us on a tour of the lake. The largest lake in Arkansas, Lake Ouachita is 40 miles long, occupies more than 40,000 acres, has nearly 1,000 miles of shoreline. It was created when Blakeley Mountain Dam blocked the water of the Ouachita River. It is surrounded by 2 million acres of national forest, and less than 3 percent of the shore is developed. At the lake there are many boats for rent ... pontoon party barges, houseboats, fishing boats, sailboats,, kayaks and canoes. Or you can bring your own. You can also scuba dive there or camp on one of the 100 uninhabited islands. The lake is known for striped bass and largemouth bass (fishing guides are available). Good time to come is June and early July before the black flies and after September after they are gone and the foliage is in fall color. We stayed at the Mountain Harbor Resort in a large waterfront cabin with three bedrooms, three baths, a fireplace, full kitchen, washer and dryer, and a large porch with hot tub looking out on the lake. You could smell the pine and cedar. On the grounds are a spa (Turtle Cove Spa) where you can have a massage indoors or in the woods, or you can enjoy boating, golf, tennis, horseback riding, and guided hikes. There is a geo-float trail (marked areas of geological significance over 16 miles along the shore to explore by boat). There are also RV hookups available with water, electricity and cable.
They have accommodations, convention services, a marina with slip rentals and pontoon boat rentals, canoes, kayaks, golf, tennis, horseback riding, hiking, and the best catfish we ate in all of Arkansas. (Host Chris Snodgrass, manager of the lodge, says anyone in Arkansas should eat catfish at least once a week; we had it four times in three days, just to compare.) There are many parks in Arkansas, lakes with bass and streams with trout, rivers to kayak or canoe, trails to hike, mountains to climb. Many allow camping. The website www.ArkansasStateParks.com has links to park websites. Other things to do in Arkansas: Little Rock Check the ducks in the lobby fountain of the Hotel Peabody. The red carpet is rolled out and they parade to the elevator to John Philip Sousa’s “King Cotton March” every day at 11 and at 5, as they have in every Peabody Hotel since the custom started in the 1930s at the Hotel Peabody in Memphis. To get good views of the river, walk the Big Dam Bridge and the park paths along the riverfront or ride the sternwheeler Arkansas Queen for a dinner cruise. You can get around town on the electric street cars (Day Pass $2). Go to Little Rock Central High School, stand there and walk in the footsteps of the Little Rock Nine who made desegregation happen some 50 years ago. Go to the Clinton Presidential Center. On the banks of the Arkansas River the center houses the Clinton Library with replicas of the Oval Office and the White House Cabinet Room and the history of the Clinton years. And it houses the William J. Clinton Foundation as well as the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, the only institution in the U.S. offering a Masters Degree in public service. The Clintons have living quarters on the top floor, including a roof garden. Several of us were invited to the floor, viewed the roof garden with herbs, yellow roses, Black-eyed Susans and other native plants, blueberry bushes, and a grand view of the river and the city. We enjoyed eating a few of the blueberries, thank you Mr. President, while learning about the “green roof” that saves energy. The Center was designed to be environmentally green in construction and operation, from using recycled tires in the rubber matting to using environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.
Mount Ida This area is one of the
world’s centers for quartz crystals and the highway is dotted with rock shops
with excellent local and world crystals, or you can pay to dig for your own ($20
for adults; $10 for kids). We found wonderful crystals, big and small at Bear
Mountain Quartz Crystal Mine. Owners of the mine Kathy and Jim Fecho showed us
around and told us their story of leaving Illinois and coming here years ago
with $35 in When you go crystal hunting, bring a bucket for collecting, wear sturdy shoes, bring a hand garden trowel or fork to dig around with, and you might want garden gloves. Charley and his assistant Mickey dig with a back hoe or by hand into the side of a hill to find pockets of crystals, and spread the dirt out on the land where you scour for specimens. You can retrieve the crystals best on a clear sunny day when they shine from the dirt. Crater of Diamonds State Park
Hot Springs The biggest attraction in addition to the hot mineral water is the row of old bathhouses, once frequented by the famous such as Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and the infamous like Al Capone (he obtained moonshine in the nearby hills). Bathhouse Row was a hub of activity in the 1920s, people going to the bathhouses to take the cure and enjoy the waters. You can tour one of the bathhouses to see what the spa experience was like, the hot tubs, needle showers, vapor cabinets, sitz baths, hot packs with mineral water, massage tables and gyms ensconced in wall of marble, statues and fountains, mosaic floors and leaded glass windows. There is a fountain where in the center of town where you can drink the water or fill a jug to take with you. Eureka Springs Check out the Crescent Hotel, built in 1889 and supposedly haunted, or see the Great Passion Play, a re-telling of Christ’s last days on earth, complete with horse-drawn chariots and live animals. Ozark Folk Center Near Mountain View is the Ozark Fold Center State Park. The town is called the Folk Music Capital of the World and there are live performances by musicians of traditional Ozark mountain music and workshops are held in music, dance, and crafts. For more information: www.arkansas.com By
Shirley Linde
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We also checked out DeGray
If you are still into
digging, go to the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, the only
diamond mine open to the public for digging. You can search over a 37 acre
plowed field with soil from the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic pipe. You
can dig for buckets of dirt, wash the dirt through mesh. This produces the most
diamonds, but mostly small matchhead-sized ones. The biggest but less frequent
ones, said the guide, were found by simply walking over the land and looking.
(Look in low places and in the ditches, he said. Best time is just after a rain
or when new dirt has been spread.)) The first known diamonds were found here
some 100 years ago, there were commercial mines for a while; now bulldozers dig
the dirt, spread it around and people come for a small fee and try to find
diamonds. You can keep whatever you find. Two were found the day we were there.
The largest ever found here was a 40 carat white diamond, in 1924. Since then 17
diamonds have been found that were greater than 3 carats, and tens of thousands
of small ones. The search area is a 36-acre plowed field, partly soil of
volcanic origin called lamproite. Tips: Diamonds have a slick surface so dirt
does not stick to them, they can be clear, white, yellow or brown.