Group travel in the Natural State

Bank Club Directors tour The Natural State
Heritage Clubs International Annual Peer Group Conference 2012 was held in Rogers, Ark., March 21-25. Prior to the start of the conference, bank club directors were treated to a familiarization (FAM) tour of Arkansas organized by the Group Travel Section of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. Club directors spent their first evening aboard the Arkansas Queen Riverboat in North Little Rock. The next day they went to the non-profit Heifer Project International Headquarters and the adjacent interactive Heifer Village, William J. Clinton Presidential Center and a guided tour of the city of Little Rock. That afternoon they were taken to Pine Bluff where they visited the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum and the Delta Rivers Nature Center. They finished up the evening at Marlsgate Plantation Home. The next day began with breakfast and a tour at P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home Retreat atop Moss Mountain. From there they enjoyed a tour of Hot Springs – The Muses, The Gangster Museum of American and Garvan Woodland Gardens. The group spent the evening at the picturesque Lodge at Mount Magazine. After breakfast on the mountain they descended into Paris for the "Paris without a Passport" tour led by Marie Antoinette, which includes Subiaco Abbey and Academy, the Logan County Coal Miner’s Memorial and Cowie Winery and Wine Museum. After lunch in Paris, the group headed to Fort Smith where they saw the barber chair where Elvis Presley received his buzz cut when he was inducted into the Army at Fort Chaffee Barbershop Museum. Miss Laura’s Visitors Center and the Fort Smith National Historic Site were the last two stops before dinner in Fort Smith. The next morning they learned the intriguing history of the Drennen-Scott House in Van Buren. From there they rode the motorcoach to Rogers beginning the 2012 conference. This conference offers club directors the opportunity to network and share best practices with their peers, plan trips for the upcoming year with industry partners in attendance, and educates community banks on how to remain a strong resource for local, high-end deposit customers. Heritage Clubs are bank clubs that provide social and travel services for their bank members.  Club directors, amongst many other things, plan travel events throughout the year from mystery day trips to international excursions. The Heritage Club group includes Preferred Tour Operators, Convention & Visitors Bureaus from various states and select Niche Travel Partners. One evening included a trip to the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and a choice of one of three sight-seeing tours featuring some of Arkansas’s most treasured landmarks in Eureka Springs, Fayetteville, Bentonville and Rogers.
Civil War replica unveiled in Helena-West Helena 

The May 11 dedication of a massive Union fort replica begins Helena’s Civil War Sesquicentennial commemoration of a multi-faceted heritage that includes Federal occupation, seven Confederate generals, and an encampment of thousands of freed slaves.
The block-long reproduction of Fort Curtis completed at the corner of York and Columbia streets recalls the historic river city’s occupation by Federal troops from July 1862 through the Civil War’s end in 1865, as well as the Confederacy’s failed attempt on July 4, 1863, to return the city and its strategic position along the Mississippi River to Southern control. The Battle of Helena would leave 206 Union and 1,636 Confederate forces dead.
 Today, many in the Delta community hope the fort and the interpretation of more than 27 other Civil War sites throughout Phillips County can act as a catalyst for economic growth through increased tourism. The May 11 event, slated to begin at noon, will include local and state officials, historians, re-enactors, and numerous civic leaders and members of the public focused on building the area’s future through closer attention to its heritage.
 The United States is observing the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War through 2015. With an estimated 600,000 men losing their lives, the four-year period marks the bloodiest period in the history of the nation. (Read More)

Story Courtesy The Helena World

Arts Center celebrates Rockefeller centennial 

The Arkansas Arts Center will commemorate the centennial of Winthrop Rockefeller's birth with the exhibition "The Rockefeller Influence," beginning May 25 and ending August 19.  It will include works from a permanent collection as a result of the Rockefeller family. It will also tell the story of the major role Winthrop Rockefeller, his wife Jeannette and members of the Rockefeller family had in the creation and development of the Arkansas Arts Center and its programs. This exhibition is part of a region-wide celebration of this important anniversary. To complete the experience, spend some time at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute and the Legacy Gallery, which chronicles the life of Winthrop Rockefeller with over 300 photographs. The institute is nestled atop the picturesque Petit Jean Mountain in Morrilton. The institute also offers culinary classes using flowers, herbs and vegetables grown on the mountain. 

16th Butterfly Festival June 22-23 at Mount Magazine 

Mount Magazine State Park, located near Paris, Ark., is a nature-lover’s paradise. Not only because it is located 2,753 feet above sea level offering cooler summertime temperatures, but because the altitude, geography and climate of the park’s 2,200 acres combine to create unique habitats for rare plants, animals and, especially, the nation’s showcase butterfly, the Diana Fritillary. All of these combine to make Mount Magazine International Butterfly Festival one of the more popluar events in the state. This year's festival is scheduled for June 22-23. The festival is organized between Mount Magazine State Park and the gateway city of Paris. Butterfly enthusiasts from around the world are lured by the many species found on Mt. Magazine. Arkansas has a total of 127 resident species of butterfly, and of those, 91 appear on Mount Magazine State Park’s plateau-like summit. Virtually all Arkansas resident butterflies are represented in plentiful numbers on the mountain. The Diana Fritillary,  seen only occasionally in other parts of the United States, consistently reproduces on the mountain, making Mount Magazine one of the country's popular, biological "hot spots". Discover how everything in nature is connected through programs, guided walks, and the ever-popular Bug Bonanza Pavilion.

Gangster Museum highlights the early days

Newly expanded to 10,000 sq. ft., The Gangster Museum of America recently
re-opened with additional
exhibits. Offering customers more of the famous spa town’s gangster past, visitors can view spacious galleries, new acquisitions and hear more eyewitness accounts of the glory days of gambling. Focusing on the 1920s-40s era of Hot Springs, the museum shares history, which, until recently was largely believed to be legend. Highlighting the stories of many notorious gangsters such as Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Bugs Moran and Frank Costello who were known to vacation in The Spa City.