OPINION | REX NELSON: Blanchard Springs at 50
It was hot on the day of my visit to Blanchard Springs Caverns, but cool deep beneath the earth. The visitors' center operated by the U.S. Forest Service was p…
It was hot on the day of my visit to Blanchard Springs Caverns, but cool deep beneath the earth. The visitors' center operated by the U.S. Forest Service was p…
During the decade I worked in the governor's office, the expenditures that were hardest to convince legislators to support were those having to do with researc…
More than a dozen years ago, I wrote a column headlined "Man on a mission" about the Arkansas Research Alliance.
My most vivid childhood memory is from 60 years ago tonight. I was four years old. The nation was still in shock from the assassination of President John F. Ke…
It's hard to comprehend that David Bazzel is 60. In our minds, he will always be "Arkansas' most eligible bachelor," the former University of Arkansas football…
The weather couldn't be better as Dr. Dean Kumpuris, Jane Rogers and I walk through the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in downtown Little Rock's Riverfront Pa…
The day started early with breakfast at the Skillet Restaurant on the grounds of the Ozark Folk Center at Mountain View. It continued with interviews with peop…
When I was growing up in southwest Arkansas, the Christmas holidays meant more time for quail hunts. My father sold athletic supplies to high schools and colle…
Downtown Hot Springs was back in the news recently as business and civic leaders there continue to market the site of the former Majestic Hotel at the north en…
Tourism is the second-largest sector of the Arkansas economy (behind agriculture), and promises to become even more important to the state during the next seve…
Though I already knew the answer, I had to ask the question: "What on Earth were you thinking?"
It's a rainy Thursday night in Hot Springs, and Deluca's Pizza on Central Avenue is packed. Deluca's is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and I'm here to do a …
I'm sitting on the porch of a beautiful home on the banks of the Little Buffalo River in Newton County, visiting with one of the top dog trainers in the world.…
We're gathered on the square in downtown Osceola, and it feels like a pep rally. I'm here to research a story on the steel industry, but I also asked for a sma…
The crowd stretches more than 100 yards outside what once was a shirt factory on the edge of my mother's hometown of Des Arc. The sun is just beginning to set …
It was Arbor Day, and a ceremony was taking place on the University of Arkansas at Monticello campus. Students planted a bur oak as dozens of people watched.
I'm standing at the front door of the Trotter House in Monticello, wishing I had spent the night at this bed-and-breakfast inn rather than at a chain motel. Op…
Earlier this year, I wrote a column about a duck hunting trip to Grassy Lake in southwest Arkansas. I ended it by saying that "I would love to come back this s…
Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday. It's a day to eat too much, watch football games and exchange stories with family members. It's also a day to r…
Sam Pittman is back for at least another season. It means that the athletic department at the University of Arkansas will save a lot of money. It also means th…
It's a sunny Wednesday in October, the leaves are changing color, the square at Jasper is crowded with visitors, and I'm eating one of the best pizzas I've had…
Back in the summer of 2019, before the word "pandemic" was one we thought about on a daily basis, I wrote a column about a young couple trying to revitalize do…
The room was filled on a Wednesday morning last month at downtown Little Rock's Museum of Discovery. The occasion was a board meeting of the Downtown Little Ro…
Neil Compton hailed from Bentonville, making him an outsider to the folks in Searcy and Newton counties.
At least for a few months, Bob Fisher is home.
They'll play another Battle of the Ravine in Arkadelphia on Saturday afternoon. In my family, the annual football game between Henderson State University and O…
History is repeating itself in the Arkansas Ozarks. When a brave band of environmentalists began the fight decades ago to have the Buffalo River designated as …
Economic development officials in Mississippi County use the slogan "Cotton to Steel" when talking about the transformation of this northeast Arkansas county f…
In 1974, Mississippi County residents voted for a tax increase to pay for construction of Mississippi County Community College. The county still had a populati…
The sign on the door of the Hog Pen, which sits along the famous Blues Highway in Mississippi County, gets right to the point. "Wipe your feet please," it read…
I'm in a meeting room at the Nucor Arkansas (known locally as Nucor Hickman) steel plant in north Mississippi County. The Nucor employees gathered around the t…
I recently wrote about the Arkansas paradox: the fact that the economy seems poised to enter a golden era at the same time our politics has become poisoned wit…
Braver Angels of Arkansas isn't a large organization, but it might be the most important in a state where a new governor has imported the angry, divisive polit…
I often become angry when driving in the state's largest city. It's not just due to the drivers who run stoplights and speed because they know they can get awa…
In Wednesday's column, I wrote about Lake Village's Rhoda Adams, the Arkansas tamale queen who died in August at age 85. The first three restaurants inducted i…
The recent death of Rhoda Adams at age 85 brought back warm memories of Arkansas' tamale queen. I remember that stormy Tuesday night in the spring of 2017 when…
As our canoes pull away from the launch ramp at Little Rock's Interstate Park, traffic on nearby Interstate 30 can be heard. We paddle upstream on Fourche Cree…
The heart of any city is its downtown. And the heart of Arkansas is its capital city. That's what I say to anyone who asks why I often write about downtown Lit…
They call it Life Works Here. It's the branding initiative developed by the Northwest Arkansas Council to raise awareness of the region and attract talent. By …
I call it the Arkansas paradox. At a time when the state has its worst governor since Orval Faubus and an ineffective Legislature, the Arkansas economy seems p…
Michael Spivey, a Rogers native, spent almost eight years in South Africa as general counsel for Massmart, a firm that owns a number of major brands in Africa.…
I'm in my hotel room in northwest Arkansas, reading several publications I picked up. Two things further impress on me something I already know: This region is…
If you're a student of Arkansas political history, mark down the dates of Sept. 11-13. They might represent the first time Arkansas legislators realized that t…
Headed west out of Eureka Springs on U.S. 62, the large tower crane can be seen rising above the trees. It's the kind of crane one would expect to see in Bento…
In last Wednesday's column about the 1973 Ozark Mountain Folk Fair, which was held just north of Eureka Springs and called by some the Southern Woodstock, I me…
We've missed one pick per week for four weeks now.
We're on the top floor of Ledger in downtown Bentonville, marveling at the number of tower cranes at construction sites across the city. There's one next door.…
During meetings of the Northwest Arkansas Council, which I sometimes attend, council officials like to recap big developments taking place in this corner of ou…
"People who have been bedridden sufferers for years come here, drink the waters and get well, often in a very incredibly short time," the Eureka Springs Daily …