Pedal power
The Trails at Mena initiative will become a major destination that, unlike western states and Canada, will offer cycling 12 months a year.
Phillip Wilson was working in the technology sector in Dallas after having grown up in rural west Arkansas when he experienced what a lot of Arkansans have through the years. In the words of late Arkansas novelist Charles Portis, he never quite achieved “escape velocity.”
I can relate. After four years in Washington, D.C., I returned home to Arkansas in late 1989 and have been here ever since.
Wilson was raised at Pencil Bluff, educated at Oden, then earned a political science degree from Hendrix College at Conway, where he played basketball for legendary Coach Cliff Garrison. He came back to teach courses at what’s now the University of Arkansas Rich Mountain. After serving in several academic and administrative roles, he became chancellor of the two-year institution in 2011.
“I came back here in 1999 because I was haunted by the fact that this part of west Arkansas had been forgotten,” Wilson says. “There was no economic development to speak off. Businesses were leaving and so were workers. I’ve tried to give back. What we’ve attempted to do is change our way of thinking in this region. I come to work each day thinking about the best way to defeat rural poverty.”
After visiting in Wilson’s campus office, we go downtown to have lunch with Seth Smith, the town’s dynamic mayor, and state Rep. John Maddox. They’re among a group of leaders who have changed how people think about this isolated part of Arkansas.
Smith took office in January 2019. He’s a military veteran, former sheriff’s deputy, former volunteer firefighter and business owner.
Maddox, meanwhile, graduated from Mena High School in 1987 before earning a bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Since finishing law school in 1997, he has worked for the firm Maddox & Maddox at Mena. He began serving in the Legislature in 2017.
“The members of our city council tended to be older, but this young mayor brought them along,” Wilson says. “They now realize that the Mena area has a chance to be the next big thing in Arkansas tourism. We need to be ready when that happens.”
In addition to planning for what are expected to be thousands of visitors for the April 8 solar eclipse, Smith continues to work on an audacious plan that will transform Mena into one of the nation’s mountain biking capitals. As I reported in August, a group of Arkansas government and business leaders has been working quietly on a plan that
will make Rich Mountain the nation’s go-to spot for what’s known as downhill gravity mountain biking.
Downhill gravity biking is an increasingly popular form of cycling in which riders begin at a high elevation and use gravity to propel themselves downhill. Gravity mountain biking provides a high-speed experience and is considered to be among the most extreme versions of the sport.
Brothers Steuart and Tom Walton of Bentonville, who set out a few years ago to transform our state into America’s mountain biking mecca, have made multiple trips to Rich Mountain.
Private interests—foundations, companies and individuals—are prepared to spend up to $40 million to build a series of four lifts up the mountain. These will resemble lifts at a ski resort. Rather than skiers, the lifts will carry cyclists and their bikes.
What’s known as the Trails at Mena project eventually will include more than 100 miles of destination-quality trails, including about 30 gravity trails on Rich Mountain. There also will be 15 to 20 backcountry trail loops that will include more than 5,000 feet of climbing.
After lunch, the mayor drives us to Ward Lake Valley, a bowl at the bottom of Rich Mountain that once held the city’s water supply. It was drained years ago, but the cityowned land will now play an integral part in the Trails at Mena initiative. The difference between Mena and gravity cycling destinations in Western states and Canada is the weather. Unlike those places, Arkansas can offer 12 months a year of cycling.
One person involved in the effort told me: “This will be for cyclists what Vail, Breckenridge and Aspen are for skiers.”
Investors are purchasing buildings along Mena Street, the main business street one drives down when coming off Rich Mountain. Downtown already boasts places such as American Artisans (the combination gift gallery and bistro where we had lunch) and The Ouachitas (a craft brewery known for its coffee drinks and pizzas as much as its beer).
As Wilson, Smith and Maddox show me around downtown, it’s easy to visualize a neighborhood filled with restaurants, brew pubs and retailers designed to serve cyclists from across the country.
“We’re going to give people a reason to come here and spend their money,” Smith says.
During the pandemic, Wilson began seeing more out-of-state license plates as people discovered the outdoor recreational opportunities in this part of Arkansas.
“Now, we’re starting to see people actually move here from Texas and Louisiana,” he says.
The Ouachitas, which opened in 2018 as a coffee shop, has a decidedly upscale vibe. A restaurant was added in 2019, and beer began being brewed in 2020. There are now 29 beers of tap, 18 of which are produced locally. The Ouachitas started canning four of its beers last fall. Wilson calls the business “a real bright spot for our community.”
“It has taken the mayor, Representative Maddox and the downtown business owners to make all of this happen,” Wilson says. “These are crucial partnerships. When the tourism explosion comes, I want the college to be part of that support mechanism. We’re going to have to be quick on our feet to ensure we have the workers needed for new businesses that spring up.”
No one understands the importance of the education sector more than Maddox. He’s the grandson of Arkansas educator and legislator Ode Maddox, who was born in 1912 and graduated from Oden High School in 1932. Ode Maddox received his early education at Caney Elementary School. He often would say his most important educational experience had been at “the University of Caney.”
Ode Maddox began teaching at Oden in the fall of 1934. He also served as the coach of all sports and drove a bus. He led Oden High School basketball teams to state championships in 1948 and 1954. Maddox spent 31 of his 42 years with the Oden School District as its superintendent.
“During much of the time that Maddox was overseeing the Oden School District, he was also a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives,” William Pruden III writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. A Democrat, he was first elected in 1956 and served for 42 years, retiring in 1999 only because of constitutionally imposed term limits.
“During his tenure in the Legislature, he wielded considerable power as chairman of the Insurance and Commerce Committee. Maddox also served on the Education Committee, where the man dubbed Mr. Education by many of his colleagues played a major role in the advancement of the state’s educational system. In 1983, he was instrumental in securing funding for a community college at Mena.
“His crowning achievement was his work relating to rural education in Arkansas, especially his role in the effort to defeat the 1966 proposal by the Arkansas Education Association to consolidate the state’s school districts by dissolving all districts with fewer than 400 students. Maddox was present at the creation of the Arkansas Rural Education Association, a group organized to oppose the AEA plan.”
Ode Maddox died in March 2001. In 1973, the state Department of Vocational Education established Rich Mountain Vocational-Technical School to serve Polk, Montgomery and Scott counties. Classes began in 1975 with Mary Louise Spencer as president. In 1976, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia began offering classes in Polk County. Under the direction of Rachel Goforth, the Polk County Committee for Higher Education formed in an attempt to establish a college at Mena.
Ode Maddox authored legislation in 1983 to establish a statewide community college system. In April of that year, Polk County voters approved a tax to establish the Polk County Community College District. Rich Mountain Community College opened in July 1983 with 290 students.
Bill Abernathy, Ode Maddox’s son-in-law, became the college’s president in 1987. Abernathy had starred in basketball for Maddox at Oden High School. Following graduation, Abernathy married childhood sweetheart Mary Jo Maddox and attended Arkansas Tech on a basketball scholarship.
Abernathy spent one year as a teacher in California before returning to Oden to teach. He later worked as a school administrator at Conway and Greenbrier before becoming Mena’s superintendent in 1972.
Abernathy served 13 years as president of Rich Mountain Community College. He later served three terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives, where he chaired the Education Committee. Abernathy died in May 2019. There are buildings on the Mena campus named for Maddox, Spencer and Abernathy.
Janet Smith became the school’s third president in 2000. In the fall of 2001, Rich Mountain Community College reached the 1,000-student mark for the first time due to Aalfs Manufacturing Co. closing and laying off almost 500 people who had worked to manufacture denim jeans. The school began training those employees for new jobs.
The college became part of the UA System in 2017.
A history of the school on the UA Rich Mountain website gives one a sense of how isolated this area is: “State highways from UA Rich Mountain’s service area to larger cities are narrow and winding. Mena is a minimum of 1.5 hours in any direction from a larger city. The closest four-year institution is the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, which is 82 miles to the north. Henderson is 85 miles to the east. Traveling to Little Rock is a 2.5-hour, one-way trip. Students pursuing further education must conduct a dangerous commute, relocate or look for online or hybrid options.
“Tucked at the foot of Rich Mountain, Mena offers an abundance of untouched scenic beauty and natural resources. Rich Mountain is the second highest mountain in Arkansas and sits in the heart of the Ouachita Mountain range, the highest range between the Appalachians and the Rockies. The 54-mile Talimena Scenic Drive includes the summit of Rich Mountain and Queen Wilhelmina State Park. The region features crystal-clear streams, lakes, the Ouachita National Forest, Wolf Pen Gap and other ATV trails. There are a variety of outdoor activities including canoeing, kayaking, horseback riding, fishing, boating, hunting, golfing, hiking, crystal digging, camping and more.”
Now, it’s cycling and other outdoor recreational opportunities that might be the region’s economic salvation.
Because it’s in such a remote area, UA Rich Mountain offers things many two-year colleges don’t: housing, food services, athletics. Four townhouse-style campus housing units opened in the fall of 2020. Two are for men and two are for women. They house 140 students.
Wilson shows me the housing units along with the Ouachita Center, which opened in August 2014. The center has 13,000 square feet of flexible space with a catering kitchen and dining tables. It can accommodate banquets for 350 to 400 seated guests.
In an effort to serve the needs of this mountainous region, UA Rich Mountain began programs for nurses, emergency medical technicians, truck drivers and engine mechanics. Wilson is attracting even more students with baseball, softball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and men’s and women’s wrestling programs.
The school even purchased a former assisted living facility known as The Oaks out of bankruptcy to house athletes. There’s a nearby indoor workout facility, a rarity at a community college.
I had one Arkansas tourism insider tell me that the completion of the trail system on Rich Mountain will be the biggest thing in Arkansas tourism since Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened at Bentonville on Nov. 11, 2011. Wilson is making sure the educational infrastructure is in place when the boom comes.