The beginning of Bella Vista Village
BELLA VISTA — Nineteen sixty-two brought major changes to Northwest Arkansas. That was the year both Sam Walton got started with Walmart and John Cooper Sr. got started with Bella Vista.
In July 1962, Sam Walton opened his first Walmart. It was in Rogers near the corner of Walnut and 8th Street in a building that today holds the Somewhere in Time antique store.
In the fall of 1962, Cooper began processing “Options to Buy” on farms and property in the Little Sugar Creek valley north of Lake Bella Vista through his representatives, including attorney Clayton Little of Bentonville. Apparently, the very first one signed was for the 1300-acre Dallas Telford property, on Sept. 14, 1962, giving Cooper 12 months to exercise the option to buy.
The property boundary started at the Missouri state line, covering parts of three sections of land. From the state line, it straddled Little Sugar Creek going south along U.S. 71.
A bill of sale was signed one year later, on Sept. 5, 1963, with a $25,000 down payment and a 10-year, 6% interest bearing note for $120,000, which was paid off in August 1973. By then a golf course and country club building had stood for several years on the southern part of that acreage.
At the northern end, the property included the Swan Lake Motel, near the Missouri state line, on U.S. 71 in front of Swan Lake. The motel was converted into the first office for Cooper engineers and consultants. The circle drive for that motel, no longer standing, is still visible just in front of the entrance to the Village Wastewater plant.
On Feb. 23, 1965, John Cooper, Sr., announced his plans for Bella Vista Village, and formally opened the village with his first lot sale on May 21, 1965, to Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Beck of Bentonville.
In 2015, Bella Vista celebrated the 50th anniversary of Bella Vista Village and the 100th anniversary of Lake Bella Vista, which was built in 1915 as the focal point of a summer resort that was opened in 1917.