Learn new things about your hometown
It was December and the sun was going down behind the pine trees on the long and winding gravel back road the first time I drove into Hampton, Arkansas.
I’d been to Hampton one other time, but this time was different.
This time we were going home.
My mother and I had taken turns driving from Kemmerer, Wyoming, following my step-dad and my sister in his old Blazer. That was 35 years ago, and I was 16.
I grew up in the woods in Sulphur Springs, northwest of Pine Bluff, and when I was 15, we moved to Wyoming after my mom married my step-dad. He has been my dad for 35 years now, even though my mother passed away 15 years ago. He is a good man.
On our trip back to Arkansas, she and I were driving the little silver Honda that he had when they married. That little Honda carried all four of us to Wyoming and it brought me and momma down that back road to our new hometown.
Somehow I just knew that South Arkansas was going to be my forever home. Twenty-two years ago I became the newspaper publisher/editor in Hampton and my love for this area really grew in the ensuing years. Then it was time to move on, and God worked it out for me to get this really cool job where I get to me greet and meet people from all over the world, but still live in South Arkansas. I also get to work with the tourism association in this area: Arkansas’ South.
Arkansas’ South has been around a long time and has done wonderful things over the years. This year’s edition of the Arkansas’ South Visitor’s Guide is out now and I invite you to come to the Arkansas Welcome Center at El Dorado on the Junction City Highway and get your own copy, especially if you’ve never seen one.
It does say ‘visitor’s guide,” but that doesn’t mean you have to be from out of the area to benefit from it as well. The guide features the seven counties in the south-central area of Arkansas: Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Columbia, Ouachita and Union.
Some of this year’s edition features include the Murphy Arts District, Hogskin Holidays Festival in Calhoun County and Logoly State Park in Columbia County. There is a relocation article of a local South-Ark Associate Vice President Dr. Jim Yates and a hunting article about the Felsenthal area.
Published once a year, you will find the 46-page guide is full of restaurants, art districts, museums, Civil War sites, as well as a list of festivals and events in the seven-county area.
The articles are useful to those visiting our area, but as a resident, I’ve learned things about this area I didn’t know. We hope to continue to grow the tourism tool and hope you will support us by reading the guide, using the guide and passing the guide to your family and friends outside of the area. You can view the guide online at arkansassouth. com, or order one for a family or friend out of the area!