Find it on Facebook

Groups share tips, treasures with like-minded

It’s almost spring — don’t be surprised if you’re suddenly struck with wanderlust or just an urge to get out of the house you feel you’ve been cooped up in all winter. The first symptom of wanderlust? The tendency to ask questions like these: Whose happy hour features a band in Fayetteville tonight? Where’s the best vantage point to watch the sun set in Northwest Arkansas? What Arkansas site might be the best place to dig for buried treasure? Where can I end a 3-mile hike with a cascading waterfall? Are there any abandoned country stores I can explore?

There’s good news: Fellow Arkansans have taken to the Internet, creating Facebook groups that aim to answer questions just like these and help to share the wonders of the state. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette explored four of these groups and discovered secrets to help reveal Arkansas’ hidden treasures.

PLAN THE EVENING

Chelsea Ware, the creator of the public Facebook group “What’s Up, Fayetteville?” said she didn’t really intend to create a group that would eventually number nearly 16,000 (and counting) Northwest Arkansas residents among its fans. But when Ware realized she had become the go-to person among her circle of friends to answer the question “What’s going on in Fayetteville tonight?” she decided to streamline the process of answering by creating a Facebook page to share.

“I’ve always been a bargain hunter,” she said. “I kind of know where all the bands are playing, where the happy hours are. I thought gathering the information together would be easier. It started out as 100 people and grew into thousands. It basically took off on its own.”

Ware acts as moderator for the group and helps curate the information by limiting it to events for the current day — making it a perfect resource for those seeking to plan their evenings.

“It’s really a great way to find what’s really popular, but a lot of people comment about being happy that they found the hidden gems, as well,” Ware said.

When the page started attracting a large number of requests for recommendations versus posts about events, Ware carefully polled the group’s members about their preferences before starting an offshoot group called “Ask What’s Up, Fayetteville.”

“People ask all kinds of questions, and it’s cool because you get all different walks of life: people who are new, who have just moved into the area, and people who have lived here forever,” Ware said. The questions include requests for recommendations for restaurants and bars, in addition to more complicated questions. In the last couple of weeks, area residents have sounded off on recommended child safety seat inspection sites, best places to work remotely and good area therapists. Users can use the search bar on the page to see if their potential questions already have been asked.

In its earliest stage, “What’s Up, Fayetteville?” is already turning into a valuable resource for Fayetteville residents — a kind of local Yelp app without the potential biases of paid business participation.

When Ware looks back on when she first started the group, she said, she’s still a little amazed it grew so large.

“I thought it would be really cool if I could start it, but I never expected this to happen,” she said.

HIDDEN TREASURES

Benton’s Brandon Sutton has long been a fan of the hidden treasures that can be found buried deep in the Arkansas clay. He’s been collecting arrowheads and marbles for about 20-plus years and picked up the hobby of metal detecting around 10 years ago to help him find a wider range of goodies in the ground, he said. Two years ago, he started the Facebook group “Arkansas History Unearthed,” so he could share his finds with like-minded people.

“I saw a lot of Facebook metal detecting groups,” he said. “And, of course, I’m passionate about metal detecting, but I wanted a group that people could go to that wasn’t just about metal detecting. My passion goes far beyond that: I love all types of history — like old photographs of different places that might not have ever been seen before. Every now and then, I make a post just to let people know that, ‘Hey, this isn’t just about metal detecting.’ I found a first edition of Charlotte’s Web at a yard sale, and I posted about that.”

Sutton’s encouragement to his followers to post a wide variety of finds has worked: There are still plenty of metal detector discoveries — like a recent post by a follower who found an 1861 dime — but the treasures also include things like a 1774 religious text Sutton recently acquired.

One of the best attributes of the group is the willingness of its members to help when someone needs to identify a find. Sutton noted that posts often can be educational for everyone.

“It’s almost like a live history lesson,” he said. “You’re able to learn about Arkansas history outside of a classroom. People find things and have no idea what they are, but they post photos. Because there are so many knowledgeable people on the site, they’re able to identify something that might have come out of their great-grandfather’s chest at the foot of the bed.”

Sutton said some of the more meaningful discoveries find their way back to their original owners, like the 18-karat gold 1932 Benton High School class ring that his friend, Joseph Mc-Cann, found and returned to the daughter of its original owner. Or the dog tags dug up at the site of a 1943 B17 crash in Sheridan.

“We love to find things and return them,” said Sutton. “We have a picture of the person who found the tags with the family of the service member. They were so overwhelmed to get those.”

In fact, Sutton frequently conducts giveaways of things he’s found and has recently started planning guided metal detector tours: He “seeds” the land they’ll be covering with his own finds, a little like a treasure hunt with sophisticated technical gear.

“You won’t see a U-Haul behind a hearse,” said Sutton with a chuckle. “I can’t take these things with me, so I want to share with others. I do a lot of presentations with schools. I think it’s important for children to have tangible pieces of history to touch — to be able to hold something gives it a whole new level of meaning.

“I’m not a wealthy person, I don’t have a lot, but I have a lot of things that I’ve found in the ground that people find interesting. So God has placed on my heart to give, and this is one way for me to do that — it’s an avenue for me to be able to give things and give with a joyful heart.”

ROAD NOT TAKEN

Arkansas is made up of more than 52,000 square miles of land, much of it lush forest, roaring waterfalls, soaring mountains and verdant farmland. (There’s a reason it’s called the Natural State.) It would be difficult for any one person to experience all of that loveliness, but thanks to the photos contributed by the nearly 44,000 members of the Facebook group “Back-roads of Arkansas,” Arkansans can come a little bit closer to exposing all of the nooks and crannies of this state’s beauty.

“In the fall of 2015, my husband Michael and I were traveling the back roads in Pope and Newton County,” said Sheri McCullah, creator of the group. “I turned to Michael and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to set up a [Facebook] group so folks could share the pictures of places they have found with others?’ He agreed, and we started [the group] that week.”

McCullah said she had no idea the group would attract the numbers it has.

“We’re adding 500 to 800 [new users] per week at present,” she said. “People love to share the favorite places they visit.”

The photos posted by the group are a celebration of the treasures one might find if he follows his sense of adventure and takes the country road to his destination, instead of the state highway. Group members have found and documented hidden waterfalls, weathered barns, old train tunnels, abandoned country churches, overgrown family cemeteries and gorgeous farm and wild animals. With an average of 10 posts a day, there’s plenty to keep an avid adventurer busy for a while.

WATERFALLS WAITING

Waterfalls require rainy seasons to be at their most beautiful, so spring is the perfect time to strap on the hiking boots and join the Facebook group “Waterfalls of Arkansas.” Its 40,000 members are dedicated to photographic documentation of the hundreds of waterfalls located in the state — especially those that have never been seen before.

“There were several of us who (around the time of making the new group) were in the process of finding many amazing new waterfalls,” said Brian Em-finger, one of the group’s founders. “And that is continuing. We would share the coordinates of these new waterfall finds, more detailed directions and even discussions about what the name should be.”

Emfinger said this kind of waterfall crowd-sourcing can be useful to those who might be thinking about taking extensive hikes to see a waterfall, but don’t want to waste their time if the waterfall isn’t at its peak.

“I think one of the best things about the group (besides seeing new, previously unknown waterfalls) is seeing the current water flow,” said Emfinger. “With so many members, it’s likely that someone is posting recent pictures of waterfalls, so you can get a good idea about whether the waterfalls are flowing well or not — or are iced up or not, when we have cold enough weather.”

Emfinger thinks groups like these help spread the word about the natural wonders Arkansas has to offer.

“Many people want to go to the Rockies, or wherever, to see amazing natural beauty,” he said. “I know a lot of people who come here from a long way away to see our waterfalls. I think when someone posts an amazing picture of a waterfall, it just makes people want to get out and see those same sights, when, maybe, they wouldn’t have felt that desire otherwise. These groups just do an amazing job of showcasing our natural state. It’s one thing to be told our state has amazing natural beauty, but it’s another thing to actually see it in a picture.”

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