BELLA VISTA -- Next week interested residents can learn a little more about Bella Vista on the Historic Driving Tour with Historical Society vice president Dale Phillips. The tour is a fundraiser for the History Museum.
"Most people believe that Bella Vista began with the Coopers," Phillips said, but Bella Vista was already a resort when John Cooper started buying property. In the early 1900s, the Bella Vista Resort boasted a nine-hole golf course -- built in 1919 -- that held regular tournaments.
According to historian Gilbert Fife, F.W. Linebarger, one of the brothers who owned the resort, wanted to extend the course to 18 holes and make it long and narrow so it touched as many building lots as possible. Those lots, he said, would be easy to sell. A few years later, the Sunset Hotel -- an expensive project for the brothers -- was constructed and the golf course was never expanded.
The remnants of the course will be visited during the driving tour, Phillips said. A museum volunteer has been clearing brush out of the area so it's easier to get to. Phillips has permission from the owner of the property to include it in his tour.
There are two tee boxes remaining on the land just south of the Artist Retreat Center, which is also on the tour, but they don't look like what a modern golfer would call a tee box. Those early golfers didn't tee from inside the box, they used the sand and water contained in the large trough-like "box" to elevate their ball a little -- the way a modern tee is used.
The museum also has a map of the nine-hole course which included some challenging holes. Golfers hit across the road that is now Highway 71B twice, and hole number 4 was up a steep hill. Phillips pointed out that golfers teeing off for hole 4 couldn't see the green to know if anyone was standing in the way or not.
Some of the photos of the old golf course show a unique obstacle between 8 and 9. That area was also used as a landing field, so small airplanes are parked there in the photos.
But in the 1930s, the golf course and the resort were in the midst of hard times. The course wasn't well maintained and it was flooded regularly. By the time the Linebargers sold the resort to E.L. Keith in 1952, the golf course had been closed for at least five years, Fife wrote.
The tour will visit the old water tower that the museum now owns and has partially restored. En route, they'll see some of the original cabins built by the Linebargers and hear about the Bella Vista Winery. They'll talk about the Sunset Hotel.
Also, on the tour is the Summit Cemetery. There were several small settlements in what is now Bella Vista, Phillips said. They "popped up" after the Civil War. The building that was once the school for the Summit settlement was destroyed by fire, but there are others that survive but are too far for the tour to visit.
The Bolain Barn is on the tour. It started out to be a church and now houses an air conditioning business.
Along with the narration, Phillips will have photos to show what the sites looked like back in the day.
Usually, about 20 people form one tour group. They carpool so only about four or five cars are in the caravan and stop together to listen to the tour guide. For more information, or to sign up for a tour, call the History Museum at 479-855-2335.
The Historic Sites Driving Tour offered by Dale Phillips is on Friday, March 20. Meet at the Bella Vista Historical Museum at 12:30 p.m., then car caravan to the various historic sites on the tour. Expect to be back to the museum by 5 p.m. Cost is $15/person or $25 for two, to be paid at the door. This is a fundraiser for the museum and all proceeds go to its operating costs. Reservations are required and may be made by calling Dale at 812-899-2049.
NW News on 03/15/2020