Jackson encourages visiting state parks
Arkansas state parks see around 8.5 million visitors each year, according to Eric Jackson, a member of the Arkansas State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission.
Jackson, senior vice president of Oaklawn Racing and Gaming, spoke to the Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club on Wednesday about his newfound passion — the state parks system. When he was first appointed to the commission more than a year ago, he said he knew very little about the state parks, but made it a mission, along with his wife, Lynda, to see the system firsthand.
“I’m pretty much up to speed on the tourism part,” he said of the commission. “I’ve been working with that department my entire career. (I’m) embarrassed to say I didn’t know much about the parks side, and here I am a native Arkansan born and raised here, and I just didn’t know.”
The endeavor was easier said than done, he said, because there are 52 state parks, but he put together a plan “and two or three times a month, we would have an outing.”
“It took us about a year, but we loaded up the car 32 times, pulled out of the driveway, hung a left or a right, and 8,204 miles later, I can now say I know where Woolly Hollow is and I can be a better commissioner when the state parks come up,” he said.
Jackson said there are state parks in 48 counties across the state, located on 54,000 acres. Every citizen of the state is within one hour of a state park, he added.
“We’ve got almost 500 lodge rooms, 1,700 campsites, eight restaurants, 13 museums, access to 42 lakes and rivers, four battlefield sites, over 1,000 picnic sites, 49 beaches and boat launches, 435 miles of trails, 45 gift shops, two golf courses, we even have an airport, 19 wastewater treatment plants, 191 miles of roads, two arboretums — and I did have to look that word up — and a diamond mine,” he said.
“Put it all together and we draw about 8.5 million people a year to the state parks. We do business with about 3,000 Arkansas businesses, (generate) about $60,000 in goods and services, and putting all that together it has about a $1 billion a year impact on the state of Arkansas. That’s just the nuts and the bolts.”
The “secret sauce,” he said, is the wide array of interpretive programs and services offered. A “small army” of 1,500 employees make up the state park system, he said.
“They specialize in various areas — they’re specialty-trained,” he said. “(Parks) put on 40,000 programs a year. … Everything from wildlife identification to Dutch oven cooking. For those programs, they get about 1 million people that participate.
“But what we’re really, really good at are the education programs because last year, we had
about 250,000 Arkansas school kids participate and learn more of our programs. It is the largest out of the classroom education programs in the state of Arkansas.”
The key to making the system work is the park superintendents, he said.
“This is the elite of the elite within our system,” Jackson said. “These folks have to run the parks, they manage the parks, they hire, they fire, they train, they budget, they plan, they maintain. They do everything there is to do in the parks, but one of the things they do have to do all too frequently is they are first responders.
“A lot of our parks are in very remote areas — no cellphones and not many landlines — yet we get a lot of visitors to those areas. So if you’re in one of those parks and you have a problem or an emergency, our park superintendents and the rangers will get to you quicker than anybody else, and they do come running. When they come running, they have to be prepared for anything and everything because when you get 8.5 million people coming to your parks every year, you see everything and anything.”
Many of the parks’ rangers and superintendents, he said, are licensed law enforcement professionals who administer not only the laws of Arkansas but the rules and regulations of the park. They also assist local and state law enforcement when needed. Jackson brought with him as guests the superintendents of lakes Catherine, DeGray and Ouachita.
“We are fortunate to have three of our premier parks in or adjacent to Garland County,” he said. “These three parks attract about 1 million people a year, so there’s a big economic impact right here in Hot Springs from these three parks.”
The bottom line, he said, is that visitors from all over the country visit Arkansas State Parks each year, and locals should visit these lands, as well.
“All we have to do is walk out of our back door,” Jackson said. “We have three right here in Garland County or adjacent to Garland County. We have 12 more state parks within 60 miles.
“The way I see it, you own them, you’re paying for them, you might as well go enjoy them.”