16 Best Hotels, Resorts & Inns in Arkansas

Arkansas is a nature lover’s paradise, home to expansive stretches of the 47,000-square-mile Ozark Mountain range, the most extensive highland region within the central United States. Whether you’re looking for upscale accommodations in resort cities such as Hot Springs or luxurious country cabins overlooking majestic lakes and mountain views, these Arkansas resorts offer the perfect travel experience for any visitor. CDC information for travelers. Hours/availability may have changed.

16 Best Hotels, Resorts & Inns in Arkansas

• Edwardian Inn, Photo: Edwardian Inn
• Lookout Point Lakeside Inn, Photo: Lookout Point Lakeside Inn
• Flamingo Springs Trailer Resort, Photo: Flamingo Springs Trailer Resort
• Arlington Resort, Hotel & Spa, Photo: Arlington Resort, Hotel & Spa
• 21c Museum Hotel, Photo: 21c Museum Hotel
• Delta Resort & Spa, Photo: Courtesy of Olena Talberg - Fotolia.com
• Grand Central Hotel & Spa, Photo: Grand Central Hotel & Spa
• Lake Forest Luxury Log Cabins, Photo: Lake Forest Luxury Log Cabins
• Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa, Photo: Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa
• Sugar Ridge Resort, Photo: Sugar Ridge Resort
• The Burgundy Hotel, Photo: The Burgundy Hotel
• The Cinnamon Valley, Photo: The Cinnamon Valley
• Whispering Hills Cabins, Photo: Whispering Hills Cabins
• Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay, Photo: Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay
• The Lodge at Mount Magazine, Photo: Courtesy of stocksolutions - Fotolia.com
• DeGray Lake Resort State Park, Photo: Courtesy of Maria Adelaide Silva - Fotolia.com
• Cover Photo: Courtesy of PORNCHAI SODA - Fotolia.com

Attraction Spotlight: Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in Piggott, Arkansas is the refurbished home and barn studio of Pauline and Mary Pfeiffer, parents to Pauline Pfeiffer, the second wife of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author, Ernest Hemmingway. The home and barn have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982. Both the home and the barn were built in 1910 by W. D. “Buck” Templeton. The property was purchased in 1913 by Paul and Mary Pfeiffer, Pauline’s parents, and Pauline grew up in the home.

The Hemingways frequently visited the home through the 1930’s during their marriage. Pauline’s sister converted the barn into a studio space for Hemingway to write in while the couple stayed in Piggott. Hemingway wrote portions of ‘Farewell to Arms’ as well as several short stories in the barn. The story, “A Day’s Wait” was written specifically about Pauline and Ernest Hemingway’s 1932 visit to the Piggott, Arkansas home. During this visit, the barn studio caught fire and most all of Hemingway’s possessions were lost. Evidence of the fire may still be seen at the museum today, although the barn has since been repaired. Exhibits at the museum emphasize themes of literature and world events of the 1930’s, family and life in the 1930’s, and northeast Arkansas’ development during the New Deal era and the Great Depression. The site has been restored by Arizona State University, which currently owns the property. The University used an aerial photo from 1937 to map the original property, and the home and the barn have been restored to their 1930’s glory through cross-reference of letters, photographs and oral histories. Many items in the home belonged to the Pfeiffers, including a collection of Stickley furniture.

History: Pauline Pfeiffer met Ernest Hemingway and his first wife in 1925 when she was living and working in Paris as an editor for Vogue magazine. She became close friends with the Hemingways, and began to spend more and more time with them. Over a Christmas ski holiday to Austria, Ernest and Pauline began an affair that would eventually lead to divorce for Ernest, and his marriage to Pauline in 1927. Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida, was a gift from Pauline’s uncle, who remained a financial benefactor of the couple throughout their marriage. The Hemingways spent their 13-year marriage traveling between the home of Pauline’s parents in Arkansas, the home in Florida, and Europe and Africa. Hemingway’s marriage to Pauline fell apart in 1940 when he met Martha Gelhorn, a journalist who would become his third wife.

Paul and Mary Pfeiffer, Pauline’s parents, were prominent residents of Arkansas and owned more than 60,000 acres of property, much of which they converted to farmland and leased to tenant farmers. The property in which Pauline and Ernest Hemingway lived was acquired from Beatrice Janes and her husband in 1997 by Arkansas State University. The Janes had purchased the property in 1950 after the death of Pualine’s mother Mary Pfeiffer, the last of the Pfeiffers to live in the home. The Museum and Educational Center opened in 1999, the same year of Hemingway’s 100th birthday. The home was the University’s first Heritage Site. Today, the University manages eight such heritage sites, which provide educational resources for students of the University as well as the general public. The mission of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center is to contribute to the understanding of the 1920’s and 1930’s through the socially elite Pfeiffer family, and the writing and life of Ernest Hemingway. The Education Center aims to foster interest in literature and writing by leveraging Hemingway’s fame as a noted American author.

Ongoing Programs and Education: The museum offers guided 90-minute tours daily, every hour on the hour. Groups should schedule in advance. School tours for students in grades 4 through 12 can be customized to focus a particular area of study. Most tours explore the economics of the Depression era, popular architectural, fashion and music styles of the 1920’s and 30’s, and the short stories of Hemingway. The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center is host to two annual writer’s retreats. Writers from all backgrounds and experience levels are invited to work in Hemingway’s barn studio and receive mentorship from noted authors. Past mentors have included Garry Craig Powell, a novelist and associate professor at the University of Central Arkansas, and Andrea Hollander, a poet from Portland, Oregon.

1021 West Cherry Street Piggott, Arkansas 72454, Phone: 870-598-3487

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Attraction Spotlight: Rush Historic District

Located within the Buffalo National River area of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, the Rush Historic District preserves a historic zinc mining district from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which served a major role in the development of modern railroads and infrastructure in the southeastern United States. Human inhabitation of the Ozark Mountain area dates back at least to 10,000 B.C. and the hunters of the Paleoindian period, though there is very little recorded history of peoples in the Ozarks prior to the arrival of Europeans in North America.

History

Though major expedition and missionary groups passed through the southeastern United States during the 17th and 18th centuries, no record of European settlement along the Buffalo River was recorded until the 1820s, although displaced Cherokee indigenous people had begun to settle alongside native Osage people as early as 1800.

Early settlement in the Buffalo River area was regulated by federal surveys and stalled by the start of the American Civil War, with settlement primarily taking the form of small personal farms, but in 1880, large deposits of ore were discovered along the banks of the Buffalo River by John Wolfer, an early prospector in the area. Miners initially thought the discovered deposits were silver, but soon realized that they had found zinc instead. After the initial deposit claim was purchased by George Chase, who established the Morning Star Mining Company, a mining rush ensued to the Rush Valley and Clabber Creek areas. By the 1890s, the area had become a major mining and economic center, containing 2,000 to 5,000 people at its peak, with a large community of homes arising around the Morning Star mine facilities. At the height of its operation, 10 companies operated 13 minutes in the district, the most of any mining center in the North Arkansas District.

The mining district reached its peak during World War I, as mines worked to produce zinc for war efforts. The end of World War I saw the migration of many workers away from the Rush District, although free-oreing policies helped keep local mining activity alive throughout the early 20th century. Following World War II, however, several local processing mills were dismantled, and the closing of the area’s post office in the 1950s turned the area into a ghost town by the following decade.

As a result of campaigning by the Ozark Society in the late 1960s, the Buffalo River was protected as the United States’ first National River in 1972, ending plans for construction of a dam. The remaining zinc mining sites in the area were incorporated as a Historic District connected to the National River, preserving the district’s remaining mines, buildings, and ruins.

Permanent Attractions and Exhibits

Today, several dozen extant structures are incorporated into the Historic District, including town buildings that showcase the life and community of area miners. Remnants of several of the original mine facilities are still visible, including the old engine of the Monte Cristo Mine, the remains of the McIntosh Mining Company’s processing mill, and ruins of the White Eagle Mine, one of the area’s earliest mining ventures. Foundational piers from the 1911 remodeling of the Morning Star Processing Mill are visible, along with the entrances to several other mines, viewable from a hiking trail that begins near the District’s parking lot. A short-lived processing mill transplanted from a Missouri facility in the 1960s is also visible. Other products of mining activity are visible in the district, including a stone silver smelter constructed in 1886, the remains of a livery barn destroyed by arson, and the Ore Wagon Road used to transport zinc to barges on the White River. A Tailing Mound also showcases residue from the mill concentration process.

Several preserved personal and commercial structures highlight the cultural life of miners in the district, including the Rush Ghost Town area, which showcases a row of clapboard houses dating back to around 1899. The Taylor-Medley Store was the site of the town’s post office until the 1950s, and the Hicks Store sold goods until it was remodeled as a personal residence in the 1960s. Part of the forge of a Blacksmith Shop from 1925 remains, and remains from the New Town Area, which sprung up around the Yellow and Edith processing mills, are also visible.

The district may be viewed either via a driving route or on foot through a number of walking and hiking trails. Mine ruins are fenced off for safety and may not be entered, and visitors are encouraged to exercise caution on trails due to hazards and river area conditions. Access to a primitive campground area is offered for a fee, equipped with cooking grills and picnic tables.

402 N. Walnut Street, Suite 136, Harrison, AR 72601, Phone: 870-439-2502

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Attraction Spotlight: President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace

Located in Hope, Arkansas, the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home is a National Historic Site commemorating the family home and birthplace of United States President Bill Clinton. William Jefferson Clinton, née William Jefferson Blythe III, was born in Hope, Arkansas on August 19, 1946 to Virginia Dell Cassidy. His father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., was a traveling salesman who was killed in an automobile accident en route to Hope for Clinton’s birth.

History

Clinton was raised during his early life by his maternal grandparents, James Eldridge Cassidy and Edith Grisham, after his mother moved to New Orleans to pursue a career in nursing. After Virginia Cassidy returned from nursing school, she remarried Roger Clinton Sr., whose surname Clinton adopted at the age of fifteen.

As an adolescent, Clinton was an avid saxophonist and considered pursuing a career in music performance, but instead decided to pursue a career in public service after developing an interest in law study in high school. He attended Georgetown University and the University of Oxford, though he did not complete his degree at the latter institution. He later received a law degree from Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. Clinton served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979 before being elected as the state’s 40th governor. In 1992, he was elected as the 42nd President of the United States, serving two terms of service, during which he was noted as a major proponent of New Democrat “Third Way” centrist policies, which blends elements of social liberalism and fiscal conservatism to promote egalitarianism through action facilitating the distribution of skills. Though he was formally impeached in 1998 on the grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Clinton left office in 2001 with the highest approval rating of any American president since the end of World War II, and remains a prominent social activist and public speaker, working with United Nations humanitarian efforts such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts.

Permanent Attractions and Exhibits

The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home preserves the house of Eldridge Cassidy and Grisham, located at 117 South Hervey Street in the city of Hope, Arkansas, where Clinton lived for the first four years of his life. The modest two-and-a-half-story frame house is designed in the American foursquare style, was constructed in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett before its purchase by Clinton’s grandparents in 1946. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and converted into a National Historic Site under the care of the National Park Service in 2010. Since 1994, the home has been open for public tours, managed by the Clinton Birthplace Foundation.

A Museum Exhibit Visitor Center located adjacent to the birthplace home contains a variety of rotating temporary exhibits, highlighting aspects of Clinton’s young life in Hope, his political career, and his enduring legacy. An electronic kiosk at the Center allows visitors to browse through photographs of Clinton’s early life at the Hervey Street house, including preserved footage of the home before its later renovation. The Center also contains a museum store, offering a selection of Clinton’s favorite books along with Fair Trade art items, meant to reflect Clinton’s Global Initiative policies during his term in office.

Tours of the historic home are conducted every half hour throughout the operating day, beginning at 9:00am. The interior of the home has been restored in large part to its condition while Clinton resided at the house, with original detail such as the turned-baluster living room staircase and the second-floor hallway beaded boards remaining intact. Original items belonging to Clinton during his young life, such as a Lionel train set he received as a present from his stepfather in the 1950s, are displayed in exhibits at the house. A memorial garden on the house’s grounds, the Virginia Cassidy Blythe Clinton Kelley Memorial Garden, is dedicated to the memory of Clinton’s mother.

Though the Historic Site is managed by the National Park Service, the 501(c) nonprofit Clinton Birthplace Foundation organization still oversees the preservation of the home site and the management of daily touring. Through the continual expansion of historical exhibits to include more images and memorabilia from Clinton’s young life, the organization strives to foster public understanding of the social, cultural, and personal history that helped shape Clinton’s ideologies, and in turn, shaped the global policies of his administration and their lasting effects on modern society. Though the organization does not conduct public special events, private Founders Gatherings honor the restoration and preservation work of Foundation members in maintaining the site as a public living history museum.

117 South Hervey Street, Hope, AR 71801, Phone: 870-777-4455

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