Visiting the Ozarks

Pictured above: Breathtaking natural beauty attracts thousands of visitors a year to the Ozarks.

 

Arkansas is well-deserving of its title as the Natural State, and there are few better places to experience that natural beauty than in the Ozark Mountains, whether it be by taking in the views from the mountaintops, biking down their slopes or fishing in the many waterways of their valleys. Nestled between the peaks, travelers can also find welcoming and picturesque towns that offer places to have a good meal, a good time and a good night’s rest.

 

Driving north from the state’s capital along U.S. 65 and then winding along Arkansas 9, such a traveler would find Mountain View, the seat of Stone County, which has a population of almost 3,000 as of the last census. Despite its small size, the town is famed across the country as the home of the annual Arkansas Folk Festival.

 

“Folk Fest celebrates our self-proclaimed title as Folk Music Capital of the World,” said Tracy Turpin, executive director of the Mountain View Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a celebration of the music, artistry and heritage of living here in the Ozarks. I hear stories from back in the 1970s of it being reminiscent of Woodstock in size and intensity. It’s a lot calmer now, but it’s a great festival and a great time for families.”

 

The festival includes a parade down Main Street and live music at the courthouse square throughout the weekend, as well as artists and vendors showing local wares and artistry. This year will mark the 62nd annual festival in April, but those who are not able to attend will still have plenty of opportunities to experience genuine Ozark folk music. When the weather is warm from mid-April to late November, musicians and locals still gather in the town square to play into the night, much as they have done since the town’s founding in the 1870s.

 

This, however, is only the first of four festivals that take place annually in Mountain View. The second is Mountains, Music & Motorcycles, a bike rally that draws attendees from across North America each August to participate in events, including a poker run, motorcycle and car shows, a pie eating contest, live music, local vendors, and more.

“Bean Fest and Champion Outhouse Races is probably our most unique festival,” Turpin said. “It’s a bean cookoff, and we have about 50 pots of pinto beans that are cooked by various people who enter the contest. We provide the beans and the pots, close off one of the streets and make a huge kitchen out of it. [Contestants] cook beans with their own recipe and whatever spices and ingredients they bring with them. Then they’re voted on for the title of Best Beans.”

 

Once the cookoff is finished, the crowd gathers to watch the great Champion Outhouse Races, in which wheeled “outhouses” speed down Jefferson Street, powered by two human pushers and steered by a driver sitting on the outhouse seat. The teams are often dressed in costumes. After competing in heats to determine “the fastest privy in the Ozarks,” first-, second- and third-place winners are awarded the gold, silver and bronze toilet seat awards and cash prizes. For those hoping to prove themselves as a bean cooker or outhouse racer, or just those looking to see it all for themselves, the festival is held every October.

 

This past December also marked Mountain View’s inaugural Christmas On The Square, which expanded the town’s annual Christmas parade and tree lighting into a full festival.

“We had a lot of activities here on the square, mainly aimed at the younger generation, to do something for the kids here in the area and from out of town,” Turpin said. “Little train rides, hay rides, a petting zoo. Of course we went all out, lighting up the square in the downtown area, so it was really beautiful. People really enjoyed it, and we got some great feedback. Whether we meant to or not, we’ve added a fourth festival this year by doing this big Christmas celebration, and I believe that will be a permanent thing for us.”

 

One does not need to wait for the nearest festival to make Mountain View worth the trip, however. The nearby White River is a popular spot for anglers and the source of multiple state- and even world-record trout. Fishing guides and rental boats are available to anyone looking to spend a day on the water. Other outdoor attractions include the Syllamo Mountain Bike Trail, which has five loops of varying levels that total 50 miles of trail; hiking trails like the 4.1-mile White River Bluff Loop; and Mirror Lake, a man-made lake stocked with trout.

For an experience that is not quite in- or out-of-doors, one could visit the famous Blanchard Springs Caverns, a “living cave” with constantly growing and changing formations that offer a new experience, even for returning visitors. Tours are offered at varied levels of intensity, providing options for anyone from children in strollers to true spelunkers.

 

Within the town itself, shoppers can find a vibrant downtown filled with local establishments, craft shops and a farmers market.

 

“I’ve always got to put a plug in for PJ’s Rainbow Cafe,” Turpin said. “It’s home cooking at its best. I swear, sometimes I go in there, and my grandmother must be back there in the kitchen because it’s just that good.”

 

Continuing north along Arkansas 5 for just half an hour, a traveler would reach the town of Calico Rock, so named for the streaks of blue, black, gray, red and orange running through the surrounding bluffs that resemble calico cloth. Founded in 1820, the town was once an important stop for travel and commerce along the White River, though its importance faded in the twentieth century, and the town struggled for many years. Recently, however, it has made a resounding comeback.

 

“Calico Rock became part of Main Street America this past year,” said Gloriaann Sanders, executive director for the Calico Rock Community Foundation and Main Street Calico Rock. “We have totally refurbished Main Street to the boomtown it was in the early 1900s. This is still a small town with a population of 1,500 people, and to some, it is the ‘pearl not yet discovered.’ We’ve had guests register from Austria, Switzerland, France and many [nearby] states.”

Many of these guests come to stay at the Calico Riverview Inn, a bed and breakfast on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was constructed by a man named Ben Sanders in 1923 and was made entirely out of concrete following a fire that destroyed much of the town.

 

“My sister, husband and I bought [the building] in 2021 and spent almost two years restoring it to its historical significance,” said Tracy Owens, co-owner of the Calico Riverview Inn. “It has Georgian columns on both sides of the building, which is a little out of character for a building of that architecture. There’s porches on the front and side, and when we restored the building, we took it back to what the pictures showed from the early 1920s. We opened up the porches and those columns were actually hidden behind the walls, they had just been enclosed all of these years. When you come and stay at the inn, you can sit on the original porches overlooking the river, just like Ben Sanders intended.”

 

Given the town’s location directly on the White River, it is an ideal spot for fishing within walking distance of many of its lodging options.

 

“The fishing guides are world class,” Owens said. “You don’t have to have bait or tackle or any of that; all you need is a fishing license, which you can also get here in Calico. Then when you come back at noontime, they’ll do a shore lunch. They take out the trout you caught and clean it and cook it for you right there with all of the trimmings.”

The town itself is home to the Calico Rock Museum, which tells the history of the town from the days the land belonged to Native Americans through its early settlement and up to 1967. In addition to preserving the past, it provides a space for some 28 local artists to sell items ranging from pottery and furniture to woodworking, jewelry and more.

 

There are local restaurants such as the Printing Press Café & Ice Cream Parlor, Kinship Coffee, Between the Buns, Juniper’s Back Door and the town’s own speakeasy, Peppersauce Alley, named after the moonshine trade which once thrived in Calico Rock. Visitors can also take a tour through Calico Rock’s Ghost Town, the abandoned remnants of more than twenty buildings, such as the old jail, cotton gin and barber shop.

Several annual events are held in the town, including an antique car show in April, a rodeo and bull-riding contest in June, a Fourth of July fireworks show, Trick or Treat on Main Street for Halloween, and the Living Windows & Lighted Christmas Parade.

 

“[Living Windows] is a weekend where they have live people in all of the storefronts,” Owens said. “They pick a theme every year. One year it was movies, so there were windows for [National Lampoon’s] Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause — all of these different movies and people dressed in costume. We probably have 2000 people come to Calico Rock that evening, along with a parade where Santa Claus comes through and the kids can go to the fire station to meet Santa.”

Calico Rock sits some 23 miles in either direction from Mountain View and Mountain Home, a position which has perhaps kept it somewhat hidden but also gives it easy access to whatever attractions either have to offer, in addition to its own small town charm.

 

“When you meet visitors to Calico Rock, a lot of them say, ‘This is the best place on Earth, and we hope no one ever finds out about it,’ because they want it to be theirs,” Owens said.

As much as there is to do in and around Calico Rock, it is also a great place to not do anything at all. Travelers can leave the hustle and bustle behind to sit overlooking the river and drink in the calm. For particularly good views, Sanders said the fall colors are usually at their most magical around the second week of October.

 

The last stop on this Ozark road trip is the city of Mountain Home, the seat of Baxter County, which has a population of just under 13,000. The city is one of America’s top freshwater fishing destinations, thanks to its proximity to no less than five significant waterways. These include three rivers: the White River, Buffalo National River and North Fork River. The city is also flanked on either side by Bull Shoals Lake and Norfork Lake. 

 

“The fun doesn’t take a break in Mountain Home and the Twin Lakes Area — it’s a year-round affair,” said Dani Pugsley, president and CEO of the Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce. “Whether it’s soaking up the sun by swimming and surfing the lakes in the summer, casting a line in the rivers during winter, or enjoying a myriad of shopping, dining and exploring options, there’s always something to do.”

Frequent events are held year-round, from educational presentations at the Baxter County Library and shows at the Twin Lakes Playhouse to larger annual events. The latter range from the Sowbug Roundup, a series of fly-tying and fly-casting demonstrations and seminars at the Baxter County Fairgrounds, and the Norfork Pioneer Days Heritage Festival, which features living-history tours, live reenactors and ironworks at the Jacob Wolf House, to the Twin Lakes Thunder Rally and Car Show and the Mountain Home-Town Christmas Festival — to name only a few. During any month of the year, there is likely to be at least one annual event and any number of smaller events.

 

Outdoors, the nearby rivers and lakes offer more than enough for a full vacation spent fishing and boating. Outdoorsy folks can bike down Oakridge Mountain Bike Trail at Bull Shoals-White River State Park and Pigeon Creek Trail System at Lake Norfork or hike on foot at Big Bluff Goat Trail and Bull Shoals Lakeside Trail. Push Mountain Loop is among the most scenic motorcycle routes in the Ozarks, while a short drive outside of town brings travelers to Pigeon Creek ATV and Motorcycle Area. The area’s parks and waterways are replete with camping sites and cabins for any degree of lodging in the great outdoors, and golfers can play a round at Big Creek Golf & Country Club, a multi-year winner of Golf Digest’s Places To Play five-star award.

Cave divers can also visit Bull Shoals Caverns, one of the world’s oldest limestone caves. The caverns formed some 350 million years ago, more than 100 million years before the first dinosaurs. Salamanders, small bats, frogs and camel crickets still inhabit the cave, and it is estimated that it was used by Native Americans as far back as 10,000 years ago.

 

Options for shopping are too many to name but run the gamut from thrift stores and boutiques to arts and crafts, jewelry, and books. Eateries are no less plentiful and include both chains and local restaurants, including award-winning barbecue, Mexican, home-style cooking, pizza, fresh-caught specialties, bars and breweries. Visitors can try their hand at an escape room at Mountain Mystery Escapes, play retro games at Happy’s Arcade, throw axes at Sharp Edges Axe Throwing, go bowling at Driftwood Lanes and more besides.

 

“Mountain Home and Baxter County are rich in history, with Baxter County just celebrating its sesquicentennial, or 150 years,” Pugsley said. “The Baxter County Historical Society is a must-see stop when visiting the area. They have information on the building of the Norfork and Bull Shoals dams, how Mountain Home received its name and my personal favorite story of Mountain Home resident Nellie Mitchell.”

 

Another must-see recommendation from Pugsley is the Vada Sheid Community Development Center on the campus of Arkansas State University-Mountain Home. The center, often referred to as “the Sheid,” is a venue for numerous live music and performance art events and also plays home to a beautiful art gallery that has exhibits by both student and professional artists.

 

Wherever a traveler may steer through those winding mountain roads, it would be difficult for them to go very far wrong. The Ozarks are a dream for outdoor enthusiasts, be they anglers, bikers or hikers, and even small towns welcome visitors with food, festivals and culture aplenty. There is more than enough to do, plus the all-too-rare luxury of the time and space to do nothing at all but sit back, relax and enjoy Ozark living.  

 

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