Arkansas with Kids

1. Arkansas Air and Military Museum

The Arkansas Air and Military Museum is dedicated to showcasing the colorful history of aviation in Arkansas and the American military through an impressive collection of aviation memorabilia, artifacts, and historic items related to aviation.

The museum has both static and mobile exhibits and displays, many of which are still in operation.

Stroll through the vast wooden hangar which was once a World War II aviator training post and explores the magnificent displays of airplanes that include Vietnam-era Army helicopters, a Stinson S Junior, and a Douglass A-4 Skyhawk.

4290 S School Ave, Fayetteville, AR 72701, Phone: 479-521-4947

2. Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo

The Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo is a privately owned zoo in Hot Springs that has been raising alligators since 1902. The museum features a small museum with a collection of mounted alligators and houses around 200 alligators, as well as other animals like bobcats, cougars, chickens, turtles, wild boars, and ring-tailed lemurs. The petting zoo is home to pigs, goats, baby alligators, llamas, emus, and white-tailed deer that visitors can meet, greet, and pet, and there is an alligator feeding show where visitors can learn all about these ancient animals. The Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo also has a souvenir shop and a snack bar.

847 Whittington Ave, Hot Springs, AR 71901, Phone: 501-623-6172

3. Arkansas Museum of Discovery

Housed in a historic building in the River Market district in downtown Little Rock, the Arkansas Museum of Discovery is a top science and technology center that explores math, science, and technology in a dynamic, interactive environment. Designed for visitors of all ages, the museum features 90 immersive exhibits, including a bed of nails that highlights the principles of physics and the Tornado Alley Theater which shows the power of a twister, along with a variety of engaging programs. Other exhibits include a Tinkering Studio, Earth Journeys, Room to Grow, and the musical bi-polar Tesla coil that is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records.

500 President Clinton Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72201, Phone: 501-396-7050

4. Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources

The Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources is a museum in Smackover that documents the history of the petroleum and brine industries in South Arkansas. Established in the 1980s, the 25,000 square feet museum tells the story of oil and bromine production in southern Arkansas and features a large exhibition center, a re-created boom-era street scene in Smackover, operating replicas of oil machinery, and a 10,800 square feet archive and collection center. After the discovery of in nearby El Dorado in 1921, the sleepy town of Smackover boomed from 100 to 25,000 people within a year, and the ten-county area is still producing oil today.

4087 Smackover Hwy, Smackover, AR 71762, Phone: 870-725-2877

Have fun at the Crater of Diamonds where kids can dig for treasure.

5. Arkansas Railroad Museum

Located at the former Cotton Belt yard on Port Road in Pine Bluff, the Arkansas Railroad Museum celebrates the history of the railroad in Arkansas. Hailed as an upper-level railroad preservation facility, the Arkansas Railroad Museum features one of the largest displays of historic railroad equipment in the state, including massive overhead cranes, heavy repair equipment as pits, and tools for servicing large railroad equipment. Most of the equipment is housed in the former SSW shops, which was the central heavy repair and erection shop for SSW during the steam era. The Arkansas Railroad Museum hosts an annual show each year featuring a full-sized railroad with railroad equipment, old railroad cars, and locomotives.

1700 Port Rd, Pine Bluff, AR 71601, Phone: 870-535-8819

6. Clinton House Museum

The Clinton House Museum was the first home of Bill and Hilary Clinton and the place where they were married and is now open as a public museum. Visitors can explore the institution, which displays the lives of the then-future president and a future secretary of state before they headed to the hallowed halls of the White House. Located on Clinton Drive, the museum features a variety of photographs, political campaign video adverts, early political speeches, and other documents that take visitors back in time and give an insight into the lives of two of America’s most famous people.

930 West Clinton Drive, Fayetteville, AR 72701, Phone: 479-444-0066

7. Crenshaw Springs Water Park

Crenshaw Springs Water Park in White Hall is a family-friendly water park that features a variety of water slides and rides and swimming pools for visitors of all ages. The park has a lazy river with tubes, two giant flume slides, a splash area and slides for toddlers, a large swimming pool with a zero-depth entry area, several diving boards, and a rock-climbing wall. Signature rides include the Cottonmouth Curse for some high-speed water fun, the Squirrel’s Nest with sliding tubes, the Diamondback Dive with heart-stopping speeds, and almost-vertical drops, and the Crenshaw Express for trainloads of fun. The inches-deep Turtle Tot Spot splash zone is ideal for toddlers, and the park has plenty of picnic spots and a restaurant.

9801 Dollarway Rd, White Hall, AR 71602, Phone: 870-247-6964

8. Fort Smith Museum of History

Housed in the historic 1907 Atkinson-Williams Warehouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Fort Smith Museum of History is devoted to presenting the history of Fort Smith and the surrounding region. Located on Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith, the museum preserves over 40,000 artifacts and objects that document the city’s history in a variety of permanent exhibits, including a timeline that takes visitors on a journey through growth and development of the town that grew around the 1817 military fort. Other exhibitions include the William O. Darby Memorial Room in which the story of the founder of Darby’s Rangers in World War II (today’s Army Rangers) is told and the Boyd Gallery which houses temporary and traveling exhibitions.

320 Rogers Ave, Fort Smith, AR 72901, Phone: 479-783-7841, Fort Smith Museum of History Video

9. Fort Smith Trolley Museum

The Fort Smith Trolley Museum is a streetcar and railroad museum that preserves the history of heritage streetcars and trolleys in Fort Smith and the state of Arkansas and includes a vintage operating heritage streetcar line. Opened in 1985, the museum features a collection of railcars that includes locomotives, streetcars, motor buses, and rail equipment, as well as a working 1926 electric Birney Streetcar, on which visitors can enjoy a short ride between historic Garrison Avenue and the National Cemetery in downtown Fort Smith. Regular re-enactments of the famous Robbing of the Fort Smith Trolley are put on by the Indian Territory Pistolier re-enactment group at a Western-themed village just outside the museum.

100 S 4th Street, Fort Smith, AR 72901, Phone: 479-783-0205

10. Hampson Archeological Museum State Park

Hampson Archeological Museum State Park is a five-acre state park in Mississippi County that exhibits an award-winning collection of archeological artifacts from the Nodena Site, a former a 15-acre palisaded Native American village on the Mississippi River dating back to 1400. Founded over 50 years ago, the 8,580 square feet museum features an incredible collection of objects and interpretive exhibitions that sheds light on this ancient civilization. Exhibits showcase the lifestyles of this ancient farming-based civilization and how they cultivated crops, hunted native game, and created their art, religion, and political structure. Visitors can enjoy hands-on experiences and visually stunning displays.

33 Park St, Wilson, AR 72395, Phone: 870-655-8622