Parks in ‘The Natural State’ still drawing folks outdoors
Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008
From Mount Magazine to Crowley’s Ridge and Mammoth Spring to Moro Bay, visitors to Arkansas state parks are bucking a national trend of fewer people exploring the outdoors.
A study released in February by The Nature Conservancy shows that attendance at state and national parks has dipped since the late 1980 s.
Oliver Pergams, one of the study’s authors, said he thinks people are opting to spend their time watching television, playing video games or surfing the Internet instead of hiking, walking trails or swimming in lakes. He calls it “videophilia.” But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Arkansas — at least not yet, said Pergams, a biology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He examined Arkansas’ annual state park attendance from 1990 through 2007 and compared it with national averages for state parks from the same period. Even with attendance fluctuations and unforeseen events — such as the flooding across the state this year that’s caused some parks to close campgrounds — Arkansas’ parks maintained an average of three visits for every Arkansan.
The Arkansas State Parks system celebrates its 75 th anniversary this year. The 52 parks cover 53, 741 acres, attract about 9. 8 million visitors a year and operate on a $ 57 million budget.
Pergams determining why Arkansas has a higher per-capita visitation rate than the national average would require further research. He said the state has a culture of enjoying the outdoors and a good reputation for having nice parks.
On Friday, a tired but giggling Michael Hunt, 1, finished the Van Winkle Trail at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area, along the southern side of Beaver Lake, holding his parents ’ hands.
His mother, Jennifer Hunt, said it’s important that Michael learns the value of nature. The Hunts, who live in Rogers, moved from Denver seven years ago.
“I think it’s important to be outside and together,” Jennifer Hunt said, leaning down to unfasten a monkey-shaped walking harness wrapped around her son.
“And it’s healthier, too,” said Michael Hunt Sr. “You get exercise and fresh air.” It’s also a good way to teach their son about colors, shapes and insects, they said.
The Hunts visit parks often while traveling with their small trucking company. They said Arkansas’ parks are the cleanest and have more running water than most they’ve seen.
“It’s no fun going to a park and seeing litter everywhere,” Michael Hunt Sr. said. “You go out there to see Mother Nature, and that takes away from it.” With the pleasant nature of the parks and spiking gasoline prices, they said they weren’t surprised to learn that Arkansas state parks are well-visited. They always recommend friends try out a trail when they’re in town visiting, they said.
In 1987, the Arkansas General Assembly officially dropped the state nickname of “Land of Opportunity” and replaced it with “The Natural State,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.
The nickname isn’t difficult to understand from the window of Ron Gossage’s lakefront off ice at Lake Fort Smith State Park in Crawford County.
There, crews are busy preparing for the park’s reopening after $ 22 million in improvements, said Gossage, the park superintendent. The opening date hasn’t been determined, though Gossage said it would be sometime in mid-May with a grand opening scheduled for June 19. The park has been closed since 2002.
Virtually everything in the park is new, including its headquarters. They were relocated seven miles to the north as the old park was destroyed when the dam was enlarged and the lake got bigger.
The cost for the overhaul was split between the city of Fort Smith, which passed a $ 12 million bond issue, and the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department, which contributed $ 10 million.
Joe Jacobs, marketing and revenue manager for the Parks and Tourism Department, said a conservation tax is a big reason for success in attendance statewide. The 1 / 8-cent sales tax, approved by Arkansas voters in 1996, provides funding for park programming and maintenance.
Proceeds from the tax are shared with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the Department of Arkansas Heritage and Keep Arkansas Beautiful.
In addition to funding the $ 10 million for Lake Fort Smith State Park, the sales tax has paid for the lodge at Mount Magazine in Logan County, a visitor center being constructed at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area, renovations to cabins at Petit Jean State Park in Conway County and numerous other improvements, Jacobs said. The tax “gives us guaranteed funding,” he said, which allowed for numerous repairs at state parks, including campsites, visitor centers, bath houses and pools.
“That’s made a big difference for us as far as getting people out there,” he said. “The parks are there to be enjoyed by people.” Mark Clippinger, superintendent at Hobbs, said the conservation tax “saved” the state parks and that its implementation was a major event in the department’s history. “Our parks are generally always clean, always neat — you just don’t see dilapidated stuff,” he said. And the parks can afford security and are adequately staffed.
“I think people enjoy the comfort and protection they feel when they go to state parks,” Clippinger said. “We’ve got a lot of dedicated and great people.” Arkansas’ beauty and diversity helps draw park visitors, Gossage said.
“Arkansas has a little bit of everything for everyone — mountains, streams, as pretty as lakes as you can find anywhere in the country,” he said. And shopping, dining, sporting events and other nearby entertainment for parks such as Lake Fort Smith make it even more attractive, he said.
Overall state park attendance records show that about 1. 6 million fewer people visited Arkansas’ parks in 2007 than in 2005. Jacobs said the 2005 numbers were inflated because Hurricane Katrina victims stayed in park facilities that year.
But Pergams said it should be cause for concern.
“Videophilia is coming to you, too,” he said. “Though maybe it’s just coming slower.” Lake Fort Smith State Park is equipped with high-tech tools to fight the trend — or at least create interest for gadget-dependent generations. The visitor center has wireless Internet connections, the group camping lodge will have satellite TV, and geocaching — using global positioning systems to find coordinates and hidden treasures — will be among the things to do there. “We’re trying to get kids interested in nature,” Gossage said.
To contact this reporter: aotoole@arkansasonline. com
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