New Year, New Look

The Bella Vista Museum reopened on March 1 with a new look and new exhibits.

The former meeting room was renamed the "Cooper Room" and contains exhibits about the years since Cooper Communities bought the old Bella Vista resort. The front room is now the "Linebarger/Keith Room," and artifacts tell the story of Bella Vista before 1965.

In the process of moving and rearranging and expanding, several items were found in the museum's files and are now displayed, volunteer Melissa Kendus said. People bring in more artifacts all the time, she added.

The displays in the Coooper Room are arranged in large oak cabinets that were donated to the Bella Vista Museum by the Walton's 5 & 10, the Walmart museum in Bentonville. The bottom of the cabinets is the perfect place to store years and years of scrapbooks, Kendus said. The scrapbooks, compiled by various local clubs and organizations, are available for browsing, and a seating area is provided nearby.

There's space for traveling or temporary exhibits in the Cooper Room as well. The museum has housed traveling exhibits before, Historical Society Vice President Xyta Lucas explained, but not recently.

When she was working on a newspaper column about planes landing in Bella Vista, Lucas discovered that the very first golf course in the area, located close to Lake Bella Vista, was used as a runway back in the 1920s. One of the pilots who used it was Bentonville's Louise Thaden, one of the most famous female aviators of her time. The Bentonville Municipal Airport is named for her.

Lucas realized that the Rogers Historical Museum had compiled an exhibit about Thaden a few years ago and asked if Bella Vista could borrow it. She also borrowed some photographs from the Bentonville airport, and all of that is displayed in the Cooper Room.

Although there may be other traveling exhibits in the future, Lucas expects local clubs and organizations to provide many exhibits as well. Last year, the Village Art Club and the AARP Recycling Center displayed in the space.

Also last year the museum expanded its hours, partly to reassure the city that its funding was being well spent, according to the Bella Vista Historical Society newsletter. This year, the extended hours will continue, and the museum will be open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

The longer hours mean more volunteers are needed, but so far there hasn't been a problem, Lucas said. She's already trained docents on the new exhibits, but she would welcome more recruits.

In 2015, the Historical Society is planning to celebrate both the 50th anniversary of Cooper Inc. coming to Bella Vista and the 100th anniversary of the original resort that was owned by the Baker family and platted in 1915. Lucas is hoping volunteers will step forward to help plan events for the celebration.

The museum has its own website, www.bellavistamuseum.org and is located on Bella Vista Way at Kingsland Road, next to the American Legion Post 341.

NAN Life on 03/19/2014