If you’re going to be eyeball-to-eyeball with a rattlesnake, it’s a good idea to make it indoors.
Indoors — with the snake in a large display case and looking well-fed and happy.
Checking out the happy rattlers is one thing visitors can do at the Janet Huckabee River Valley Nature Center in Barling, just outside Fort Smith. Taking a hike in this scenic former corner of Fort Chaffee is another. Hopefully those are separate activities.
The facility is one of three established nature centers around the state. A fourth, the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, is set for a grand opening Dec. 17.
There will be plenty of hoopla when that ribbon is cut in Little Rock’s Riverfront Park, so now’s a good time to check in with the others to remind Arkansans of the family fun for all ages already available.
And we do mean all ages. Visits to the three nature centers over the course of several months found little kids giggling at the exhibits and hands-on displays, and senior-citizen groups marveling at the wealth of information at their fingertips.
The 22 senior citizens in one tour group at the River Valley Nature Center were having to hurry just a bit recently. They had given themselves only an hour before they had to be over at the Chaffee Crossing museum district to see the barbershop where Elvis got his first GI haircut.
An hour isn’t long enough to fully explore any of Arkansas’ nature centers. That’s because so much is packed into each beautifully landscaped facility.
The impressive architecture and user-friendly nature centers may seem at first to be mini-state parks, but each is operated by the Education Division of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission with the official goal “to promote conservation of our natural resources through education, experience and exposure.”
Each center has special programs and exhibits designed around its unique location and ecosystem. Each focuses on children in order to foster “a lifelong passion for ethical interaction with Arkansas’ fish and wildlife resources.” And each was built near an urban area so city kids could learn about nature in a natural setting.
All that fancy “mission statement” language simply means the centers are designed to help Arkansans appreciate what they have and teach them how to keep it so future generations can appreciate it too.
Unique locations ? The three existing facilities may have the same goals but the locations couldn’t be more diverse.
In addition to the River Valley center, there’s the Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff’s Regional Park and the Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center on the south side of Jonesboro.
Here’s a brief overview of each in the order that they opened.
DELTA RIVERS Facility: Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center Address: 1400 Black Dog Road, Pine Bluff Phone: (870 ) 534-0011 Web: www. deltarivers. com Hours: 8: 30 a. m. to 4: 30 p. m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p. m. Sunday. Closed Mondays and Nov. 27-28, Dec. 23-26 and New Year’s Day. Hiking trails open yearround, dawn to dusk. The $ 5 million, 13, 000-squarefoot Delta Rivers Nature Center opened in July 2001 with the aim to showcase Arkansas’ Delta wetlands.
The complex was designed to resemble a waterfowl hunting lodge and is set, appropriately, on 130 acres in the bottomland hardwood forest of Pine Bluff Regional Park between Black Dog Bayou and Lake Langhofer.
Yes, there are mosquitoes — giant, swarming, Arkansas Delta mosquitoes — on the two miles of nature trails. Visitors should seriously spray down in season.
Indoors is a visual treat as well, beginning with a large mosaic floor map of the Delta. On one side are glass display terrariums of the region’s reptiles (including more rattlesnakes ). Mounted waterfowl “fly” from the rafters overhead.
There is a movie that offers a virtual ride in a crop-duster (school groups sit on the wings ) and a hands-on laboratory where one can do stuff like touch a coyote skin, or examine antlers or a turtle shell. Outside, two bald eagles eyeball visitors as well as a huge alligator snapping turtle and a six-foot alligator (inside an enclosure ). The highlight of the facility is the 22, 000-gallon outdoor aquarium stocked with native fish. The tank is kid-level — the better to chat with a catfish or a gar. As with all the facilities, Delta Rivers features educational programs that can be tailored for specific age groups.
CROWLEY’S RIDGE Facility: Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center Address: 600 E. Lawson Road, Jonesboro Phone: (870 ) 933-6787 Web: www. crowleysridge. org
Hours: Open 8: 30 a. m. to 4: 30 p. m. Tuesday-Friday; 9 a. m.-6 p. m. Saturday; 1-5 p. m. Sunday. Closed Mondays and Nov. 27-28, Dec. 23-26 and New Year’s Day. Hiking trails open year-round, dawn to dusk.
Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center (not to be confused with Crowley’s Ridge State Park up the road ) was the second of the facilities to be built. It opened in August 2004 on the southern edge of Jonesboro’s popular Craighead Forest Park.
The center has a couple of miles of trails (paved and unpaved ), several of which connect to the adjacent park with its even larger trail complex.
If Delta Rivers is the most intimate of the three centers, then this $ 4. 3 million facility is the most expansive at three stories and 17, 000 square feet. The grounds cover 160 acres (100 acres in woodlands ) and include a 2. 5-acre pond and 5. 5-acre restored prairie.
The center showcases the animals and ecology of the geologically unique 200-mile-long ridge that slices through eastern Arkansas from the Missouri border to Helena-West Helena.
The interior features a 23-foot-long satellite photo of Crowley’s Ridge, a wildlife kiosk, an aquarium and exhibits on turkey, deer and bear. The centerpiece of the facility is an impressive two-story rain-and-erosion diorama complete with thunder and lightning. Little kids stand wide-eyed and fascinated as the thunder rolls indoors. Out the back door and across a boardwalk is the Upland Trail. Its crowning jewel is a Prairie Overlook observation tower (with elevator ) that affords a vista that includes miles of Delta farmland to the east.
ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY Facility: Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center Address: 8300 Wells Lake Road, Barling Phone: (479 ) 452-3993 Web: www. rivervalleynatu recenter. com Hours: Open 8: 30 a. m. to 4: 30 p. m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p. m. Sunday. Closed Mondays and Nov. 27-28, Dec. 23-26, and New Year’s Day. Hiking trails open year-round, dawn to dusk.
The $ 5. 7-million Arkansas River Valley Nature Center opened in August 2006 and sits at the foot of a gently sloping ridge with 170 wooded acres overlooking 12-acre Wells Lake. The lake is a popular fishing hole and the location for the center’s canoe and kayaking programs.
The six well-maintained and interlocking trails cover almost four miles total, with each featuring a different theme or focus representative of the section of Arkansas nestled between the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains.
The 14, 300-square-foot facility features a 1, 200-gallon aquarium stocked with native Arkansas River fish. There’s also a mounted turkey bagged by former first lady Janet Huckabee.
In addition to the rattlesnakes mentioned above, the center boasts interactive exhibits (call a turkey ), a hands-on Discovery Room, a wildlife observation room and a meticulously crafted main exhibit area that includes a mounted trophy buck and a black bear poking its nose out of a hollow oak tree.
The large back deck overlooking the lake would be the envy of anybody who enjoys just sitting and rocking and watching the birds.
Speaking of birds, to go along with the many informational bird exhibits, there’s a large nesting box big enough for the kiddies to crawl inside and pretend to be bluebirds.
Finally, the goal for all of Arkansas’ nature centers is well illustrated by the life-size bronze sculpture near the center’s front entrance. It depicts four carefree youngsters and their dog playing on a log spanning a small creek. They’re enjoying the outdoors, and the nature centers are the perfect place to teach them how.
All the centers were built with funds from Amendment 75, the one-eighth-cent Conservation Sales Tax that passed in 1996. Best of all, admission is free.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
