SPRINGDALE -- A high-tech gateway to the outdoors officially opened Thursday afternoon when a ribbon was cut on the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center.
Andrew Parker, chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission called it "the crown jewel of the network of our nature centers."
Parker urged the adults in the audience to find a child to follow as the youngster discovered the nature inside.
"All the things he can put his hands on, that he can smell, that he can feel," Parker said.
Levi Campbell was one of six Smith Elementary alumni to cut the ribbon for the center. The school sits just south of the center on North 40th Street.
With his friend Kaiden Garrett, the boys headed into the recreated Ozark karst limestone cave and compared it to Spider-Man's and Batman's caves.
Olivia Griffith, 2, squatted in front of a fish tank. She watched Ozark species swim and squealed, "My fish!"
Even Gov. Asa Hutchinson unconsciously tiptoed across the digital Ozark stream flowing through the Walker Family Foundation Exhibit Hall.
Benefactor Johnelle Hunt attended the program virtually, assuring those gathered armed guards were at her door to keep her home. She spoke fondly of her childhood, growing up in the outdoors at Heber Springs.
"I got so concerned children could not get outdoors these days," she said.
"This is so special, so dear to us," said her son, Brian Hunt. "I grew up just one cow pasture over."
The Hunt home and farm have evolved to become J.B. Hunt Park, the biggest in Springdale at 108 acres.
But Bryan Hunt and sister Jane Meade said they don't remember playing there outdoors. "We were working cattle," they chimed together with laughs.
Hutchinson noted he grew up just one cow pasture over in the opposite direction, on Spavinaw Creek, roaming the hills.
"But I've come to also love the beauty of a Delta sunrise," he continued.
"And that's what I want people of Northwest Arkansas to find with this nature center -- that quality of life, an appreciation of nature, of what God has given us, and to understand our responsibility for stewardship."
J.D. Neeley of Camden, a member of the Game and Fish Commission, noted the education offered at the center is not just for children. He explained the staff of the local center will hold prescribed burns on the prairie field at the center to teach area landowners how to restore their land as habitat for the bobwhite quail.
Most of the center's 63 acres will be restored as a prairie habitat for quail -- just one of the center's focus areas. Young hatchlings have found themselves news homes in the exhibit hall and in a brood box on the prairie.
Neeley noted that each of the state's nine education centers focuses on the unique ecosystems of the region in which it serves. He listed centers in Pine Bluff, Little Rock and Jonesboro.
"This is now the flagship campus," he said of the Springdale center. "What makes this one strong is the interactive, state-of the-art activities to capture your attention."
The exhibit hall gives visitors a chance to virtually catch a fish from an Ozark stream or shoot one of several species available for hunting in Northwest Arkansas.
The education begins at habitat, but also includes ways people can enjoy the outdoors in Northwest Arkansas, Parker said.
Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said the city soon will let bids for construction of trails to connect the nature center with the Thunderchicken Mountain Biking Trails and the Razorback Greenway. The city also will begin work to improve 40th Street from Falcon Avenue to the nature center.
The city and the Springdale Water and Sewer Commission donated the land where the center sits for the nature center.
Laurinda Joenks can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWALaurinda.