PAST PERSPECTIVES

Reprinted from the Weekly Vista, August 18, 2012

The history of Highway 71 through Bella Vista goes back many years. In 1915, when the Bakers of Bentonville created Lake Bella Vista, there were no roads going north from Bentonville, just some rough trails with two streams (McKissic Creek and Sugar Creek) that were almost impossible to ford. By 1921, following the purchase of Bella Vista by the Linebargers in 1917, a graded county road connected Bentonville with the Missouri line. That road was first paved in 1929 (the same year the road between the towns of Rogers and Bentonville was first paved).

In 1926, U.S. 71 was created in name but took a much different route than it does today, going west out of Bentonville toward Gravette and from there north to the state line. The county road through Bella Vista that went from Bentonville to the state line was named Highway 100.

Using today’s streets and golf courses as landmarks, Highway 100 came north past Lake Bella Vista, went east at Cunningham Corner to cross Sugar Creek and follow the bluffs north of the red barn on Berksdale Golf Course, then continued north to Kingsland Road, went west alongside Sugar Creek by hole #4 on Kingswood Golf Course, then north and east to

cross a low-water bridge on Pinyon (now spelled Pinion) Branch Creek in front of where the Recycle Center is now located. The highway then curved back west, down below where the Town Center Fire and Police Station are located now, then north beside the creek around that hill.

In 1941, the first cut was made in that hill, where the southbound lanes of Highway 71 at Town Center are now, and the two-lane highway was relocated to go through that cut. To go west, one had to travel Tanyard Hollow Road, which took off from Highway 100, crossing Sugar Creek, and going past what is now the intersection of Chelsea and 340. The road then turned south, going through the valley now filled by Lake Windsor. One would come out in the area where today Chelsea Drive makes its southern loop, and turn right to go west to Hiwasse (or go past the Miller community south into Bentonville).

For many years, Bella Vista consisted of just Lake Bella Vista and the surrounding property. The area north of the lake, stretching to the state line, consisted mostly of farms. Farmers on the east side of Highway 100, unless they went further south, could get to the highway only by using the one-lane road across the Lake Bella Vista dam (which remained open to auto traffic until 1998 when the Dartmoor — now called Mercy Way — Bridge was completed), or going west through Pinyon Hollow valley, later filled by Lake Ann. Farmers north of where Town Center now

stands had no through road east of the highway between Pinyon Hollow and the state line.

Highway 71 was realigned to replace Highway 100 in 1960. Starting in the late 1970s, more of the hill at Town Center was dug out, and 71 was widened to four lanes in 1978. The overpass at Town Center was built at the same time (following the initial construction of Highway 340 in 1966).

Going south, the bypass of Highway 71 around Bentonville

to Fayetteville was completed in 1988, and then renamed Interstate 540 in 1999, after the rest of four-lane 540 was built going south from Fayetteville.

Addendum: Interstate 540 in Northwest Arkansas, to the southern edge of Bella Vista, was renamed Interstate 49 in April 2014. The highway through Bella Vista continues to be called Highway 71. For more historical information on Arkansas highways, go to www.arkansaspreservation.com and search for Arkansas Highway History and Architecture.