Bentonville: 150 & Going Strong

The Walmart Museum on the Bentonville square sits where the Walton’s 5 & 10 Store opened.

 

When asked to write this piece on Bentonville, I followed the usual routine of examining my modest library of Arkansas-related books to see what nuggets I might discover, beginning with the traditional histories in the collection. I was surprised by what I found. Or, more accurately, by what I didn’t find.

 

I first turned to John Gould Fletcher’s work “Arkansas,” a 1947 classic that served for many years as the most readable and accessible history of the state. Fletcher, a Little Rock native, alumnus of Harvard University and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, didn’t include a single mention of Bentonville in his book.

 

A 1955 release, “The Arkansas Story” by O.E. McKnight and Boyd Johnson, also contained nary a word about Bentonville in its 429 pages nor did the 1963 books, “Our Arkansas” by Walter Brown, or “Living in Arkansas” by McKnight and Amy Jean Greene.

 

 

In his 1978 work “Arkansas: A Bicentennial History,” Harry Ashmore, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Arkansas Gazette and one-time editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica, also failed to acknowledge Bentonville.

 

So, how did Bentonville transform itself from essentially an unknown entity in the recent past to a dynamic community that seems to be constantly in the news for all the right reasons? A city that’s among the fastest-growing in the entire country?

 

The easy response is two words: Sam Walton. But a deeper dive reveals the answer is a bit more complicated. And in that deeper dive I managed to uncover a bit of history about Bentonville.

 

Founded in 1837 with some 30 residents, it and the surrounding county were named for Thomas Hart Benton, Missouri’s first senator. An aggressive proponent of westward expansion, Sen. Benton was involved in early 19th-century discussions that led to the establishment of Missouri as a state and Arkansas as a separate territory.

 

By 1850, Bentonville’s population had grown to about 500, but the Civil War hit the town hard. First one side and then the other burned most of the buildings to the ground, including the Benton County Courthouse, either to punish suspected enemy sympathizers or to keep opposing forces from using the structures. In fact, the largest Civil War engagement west of the Mississippi — the Battle of Pea Ridge — took place a short distance to the northeast. Outlaws contributed to Bentonville’s destruction, and by the war’s end only a dozen or so houses remained standing.

 

Although Bentonville was incorporated 150 years ago in 1873, its recovery didn’t really begin for another decade. Even so, the community suffered a setback in 1881 when tracks of the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway, heading south out of Missouri, were laid a few miles east of Bentonville, resulting in the creation of Rogers.

 

During its early years, the town’s economy relied on agriculture. In the late 19th century, Benton County was far and away the leading producer of tobacco in Arkansas, with 400,000 pounds of the crop grown in 1877, converted into several brands of plug and smoking tobacco. One Bentonville producer had a contract to supply tobacco at a rate of 32 cents per pound to the federal Commissioner of Indian Affairs to expedite a treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes.

 

Tobacco gradually gave way to fruit production. In 1901, when Benton County exported 2.5 million bushels of apples, the U.S. Bureau of the Census determined that the county had more apple trees than any other in the entire country. But three decades later, the apple industry was all but gone, decimated by diseases and pests that could no longer be controlled by spraying.

 

About the time apple production was coming to an end, the poultry business took off. By 1934, Benton County led the state in broiler production and was soon shipping butchered chickens by rail to St. Louis and Chicago. Yet Bentonville’s population in 1950 was only 2,942, a modest gain over the 1920 count of 2,313. In other words, during that 30-year stretch, Bentonville added on the average 21 residents a year, or less than two every month.

 

Enter Samuel Moore Walton. He’d opened his first Ben Franklin store in Newport in 1945, and his merchandising skills quickly made it an outstanding success. When Walton’s landlord opted not to renew the lease, choosing instead to let his son run the property, Sam and his wife, Helen, began a search to buy a variety store somewhere in Northwest Arkansas, to be close to Helen’s family in Oklahoma and handy for Sam’s quail-hunting passion. Their first choice was Siloam Springs where they offered to buy Jim Dodson’s five-and-dime for $60,000. Dodson wanted $65,000 for his store. No deal.

 

So, the Waltons went to Plan B, purchasing a variety store on Bentonville’s downtown square on May 9, 1950. Years later, Helen Walton had this to say about that decision: “Bentonville really was just a sad-looking country town. I remember I couldn’t believe this was where we were going to live. It only had 3,000 people, compared to Newport, which was a thriving cotton and railroad town of 7,000 people. But I knew right after we got here that it was going to work out.”

 

Sure enough, things worked out quite well. Naming his new store Walton’s 5 & 10, Sam adopted a bold retailing concept — self-serve as opposed to the then-customary practice of clerks bringing goods to shoppers. Two years later, he opened a second store in downtown Fayetteville. Meanwhile, Sam noticed an intriguing business development in discount stores and traveled around the country learning everything he could about this new notion.

 

The rest, as they say, is history. The first Walmart store opened in Rogers in 1962, soon to be followed by similar stores in Springdale and Harrison. But there were growing pains along the way. David Glass, a Missouri businessman who would eventually become the company’s CEO, had heard about Sam Walton’s innovative approach to retailing and drove to Harrison to attend the store’s grand opening.

 

“It was the worst retail store I had ever seen,” Glass said. “Sam had brought a couple of trucks of watermelons in and stacked them on the sidewalk. He had a donkey ride out in the parking lot. It was about 115 degrees, and the watermelons began to pop, and the donkey began to do what donkeys do, and it all mixed together and ran all over the parking lot. And when you went inside the store, the mess just continued.”

 

But Sam learned from his mistakes, continually experimenting and refining his methods, all the while striving to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. Eight years later, 18 Walmart stores were open for business. By 1980, that number had grown to 330 and then to 1,573 by 1990. Today, the company operates in 24 countries, runs more than 10,500 stores and has over 1.6 million employees.

 

Sam chose to keep the headquarters of what would become the world’s largest retailer in Bentonville. Today, that main office has some 14,000 employees on the payroll, most of whom will work in the company’s new home office now under construction and scheduled for completion in 2025. The 350-acre site will include 12 office buildings, a childcare center, the Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness Center, a food hall, bike paths and a 153-room AC Hotel by Marriott.

 

Contributing to Northwest Arkansas’s prosperity are the national and international companies that supply goods and services to Walmart. Several hundred of them have established offices in the area and estimates are that over 6,000 people are employed by these outfits.

 

Back to Bentonville’s population growth. The 2020 census counted 54,164 residents, 53.4 percent more than in 2010. The state of Arkansas, for comparison, grew by 3.6 percent over the same period. In the past decade, Bentonville has averaged 1,886 new residents a year. That’s adding 157 per month, compared to less than two a month before Sam Walton arrived in town.

 

 

The Walton influence in Bentonville extends well beyond the corporate world. Alice Walton, the youngest child of Helen and Sam, has had a remarkable impact not only on Bentonville but the entire state by founding Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, arguably the most significant addition to the American art scene in decades. Opening in 2011 on a 120-acre site in the heart of town, the now-expanding complex was designed by internationally acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie.

 

With a collection ranging from an iconic Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington to Buckminster Fuller’s “Fly’s Eye Dome” to the Bachman-Wilson House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Crystal Bridges offers something for everyone including miles of meandering nature trails. A highlight for the next 15 months is “Diego Rivera’s America” ($12 admission fee; free to members). The museum is open daily except Tuesday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m., and admission is free, except for special exhibitions.

 

 

Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridge’s executive director, loves living in Bentonville. “It’s a community that has come together to embrace a place of growth and vitality,” he said. “A place where there is great accessibility to more and more things — trails, culture, food — every day.” As for the best part of the job, he added, “It’s working with an amazing team to create discoveries for people who have not had much exposure to the arts.”

 

There’s more on the way for Bentonville from Alice Walton. A state-of-the-art medical education facility, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, is under construction on property adjacent to Crystal Bridges. Charged with tackling the health care challenges of the 21st century, the school will welcome its first students in 2025. Also in the works is the Whole Health Institute, a sister organization founded by Walton that works across the board to improve physical, mental, emotional and social well-being of our citizens. Construction on the 75,000-square-foot building is now underway on the Crystal Bridges campus with an opening scheduled for next year.

 

The Waltons’ contributions to Bentonville continue through the efforts of Steuart and Tom Walton, grandsons of Sam and Helen. Their vision led to the Walton family’s establishment of The Momentary, a pioneering entertainment facility that concentrates on art, food, drink, music and the experiences they bring to the community. Located at 507 SE E St., it’s open daily with free admission. See themomentary.org for hours and details.

 

 

Steuart and Tom Walton have also formed the Runway Group with a single overriding purpose of making Northwest Arkansas the best place in the country to live. And they’re doing just that with their substantial investments in mountain biking trails, restaurants, real estate and solar development.

 

 

The Walton family has indirectly contributed to two other popular attractions in Bentonville. The Museum of Native American History (monah.us; free admission) was founded in 2008 by David Bogle, son of Sam Walton’s first manager of the Walton 5 & 10. And a major contributor to the Scott Family Amazeum (amazeum.org; kids under 2 free; others $11) is Lee Scott, former CEO of Walmart, and his family.

 

 

When asked to explain Bentonville’s popularity and growth, Mayor Stephanie Orman said, “It all goes back to our emphasis on a high quality of life. Bentonville has a small-town feel, but is a safe community with experiences usually found in much larger cities.”

 

As for her vision for Bentonville in the next few years, Orman said, “We’re focused on being a complete city — infrastructure, sustainable growth, connectivity and community partners.”

 

 

We’ll end with these comments from Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart, who said, “Bentonville is a great place to live and raise a family. I’ve lived here since I was a teenager, and it’s a special place full of good people who want to make it better. It’s kind of amazing to see all the progress around town over the years, with more to come.

 

“We often say that Walmart, even after 60 years, is just getting started. I think the same applies to Bentonville on its 150th anniversary.”

 

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