1,000 miles away

LITTLE ROCK — I’d heard the talk, seen the catchy commercials. But I’d never driven two hours northward on Interstate 540 to the Downstream Casino Resort. I’d finally decided to see what’s behind all the hubbub over this place opened four years ago by the Quapaw tribe.

There really is something to be said for turning one’s grander thoughts into action.

I’ll concede that I’ve never been much of a casino connoisseur. While I do enjoy all the bells and lights and the excitement most casinos naturally generate among milling crowds hoping to strike it rich, I also don’t seem to have enough luck when I actually take a seat in one.

So I mostly sit-which can be just as entertaining in a different way-and watch others having fun and appreciate the music on stage.

At Downstream, I was expecting to drive up on some form of towering, flashing megacomplex shouting from signs alongside Interstate 44 just west of Joplin as I approached the casino.

Instead, what I found at Exit 1 on I-44 in the barest tip of northeastern Oklahoma was a relatively understated sign leading me from the highway through trees to a traffic circle. That led to an entrance along a wide road that looked more like I was approaching a country club than a casino resort.

Rounding a final turn,I encountered a wide, tastefully done set of buildings with a high-rise hotel tower nestled into the forested landscape. In the next minute, a valet was taking the car beneath the sprawling portico and I was inside the marbled entryway, catching the scent of what seemed to be a powdery bouquet. Yet I didn’t spot as much as a daisy.

The glassy travertine floor leading through to the lobby desk was in itself a piece of artwork. The poured floor contained bits of glitter woven into hues ranging from dark to light blue, tan, gray and darker brown. It appeared to me to represent a stream winding through the center of the brown earth with gray gravel shoals. But then I always have had an active imagination.

I’d never seen a floor designed like this one, or the enormous metal sculpture like the one at the center in the entry lobby. The Quapaw American Indians, also known as the OGah-Pah, which means downstream people in their language, originally settled centuries ago in the Arkansas and Mississippi river valleys. They were the most prevalent American Indian tribe in Arkansas and among the state’s earliest inhabitants.

The sculpture and the carpeting (and even walls and coasters for tables) at the resort bear the design of the Golden Mean. This distinctive swirl is significant in the Quapaw culture, and depicts nature’s mystical numbering system. The figure appears everywhere in nature as the logarithmic spiral displayed by a nautilus shell, entire galaxies and even our own inner ears.

This place that draws from people living in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and our state appears to be an especially popular destination two hours south for those in Northwest Arkansas.

One couple I met told me they were from Springdale. Another said they’d driven up from Rogers. Here I was from Fayetteville, as is one of the resort’s top executives, who said he commutes through four states to come to work each Monday. John Berrey, the man most responsible for Downstream and its overall chairman today, is a graduate of the University of Arkansas. He’s become widely known as the heart behind Downstream.

Since opening in July 2008 and remodeling once since, this casino resort has made itself indispensable to the region by employing some1,200 people with an average sales value after just three years of at least $40 million.

Inside the fashionable Red Oak Steakhouse, I met Earl “Duke” Walter, who told me how nearby Joplin was still in the midst of rebuilding from the devastating 2011 tornado that claimed 161 lives and devastated a third of the community. Joplin is home to many who work at the casino resort, and more than 100 of them lost everything.

The personable Duke also recommended a meal that was as good as anything I’ve eaten since my first chocolate cookie at age 2. Waitress Amalia also couldn’t have been helpful. In fact, every employee I encountered was friendly.

The accommodations also were better than I’d expected in every way. And, sure enough, there was that Golden Mean spiral embedded in the wallpaper and on the coasters. There’s also a spa, golf course, exercise room, pool, buffet, you name a resort activity and they have it.

By the time I headed for home hours later, I had a much better understanding of why folks from Northwest Arkansas (such as the first two couples I encountered) wanted to make the relatively short drive to this tranquil spot.

My visit wasn’t about any desire to get rich quickly. (Isn’t that why we have the lottery that someone else inevitably wins?)

I simply enjoyed the food and the ability to relax in such a pretty and peaceful wooded setting that made me feel as if I was 1,000 miles away rather than just 100 or so.

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.