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Central Travel 1

Summer Bucket List: Arkansas Museums

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Have you made your family’s summer bucket list yet?

Many families build a list of fun things to accomplish or discover together over the summer. Some parents label each day of the week with a task theme in mind. They look toward a craft day, outdoor day, learning day, chill day and take a trip day.

If you need ideas for Arkansas Museums to visit, check out this list of destinations across the state. The best thing about Arkansas Museums is they make learning fun. And they trick children into thinking they are just having a great time!

Local History Museum | your hometown or county

I think everyone should make a trip to the local city or county museum in their hometown. You see the early settlers’ way of life. And you learn the history of the people whose names are on historical plaques and buildings across your hometown. In addition, I think there is nothing that develops hometown pride more than learning its history.

Photo used with permission from Arkansas Parks and Tourism

Fun Museums

  • Daisy Airgun Museum | Rogers – take pictures with the world’s largest airgun and tour an antique air gun collection dating to the 1600s.
  • Arkansas Air and Military Museum | Fayetteville – a must for children (and adults) who love airplanes. Explore military aviation devices with the opportunity to board large planes and see all the buttons.
  • Walmart Museum | Bentonville – capture the history and milestones of the World’s Largest Company, touch Mr. Sam’s old red truck, and stop for ice cream in the Spark Café.
  • Gangster Museum | Hot Springs – uncover the storied past of Hot Springs when famous outlaws like Al Capone made Arkansas a second home.
  • Mark Martin Museum | Batesville – houses race cars, helmets, fire suits, and personal memorabilia of one of the top 50 greatest NASCAR racers of all time.
  • Fort Smith Trolley Museum | Fort Smith – heritage streetcar and railroad museum.
  • Museum of Automobiles | Morrilton – home to over 50 vehicles, including some that belonged to Winthrop Rockefeller and the only remaining Arkansas Climber touring automobiles.
  • Museum of Natural Resources | Smackover – discover the oil boom of south Arkansas that led to the birth of Murphy Oil.
  • Esse Purse Museum | Little Rock – telling the evolution of HERstory through 20th-century fashion artifacts.

Photo used with permission from Arkansas Parks and Tourism>

Off the Beaten Path Museums

  • Lum and Abner Museum and Country Store | Pine Ridge – documents and demonstrates the stories of the characters on the famed Lum and Abner radio show.
  • Blythe’s Scott County Museum | Waldron – a unique display of Caddo Indian artifacts and war and weapon memorabilia.
  • Plantation Agriculture Museum | Scott – preserving Arkansas’ agricultural history from the field to the store.
  • Log Cabin Museum and Indian Rock Cave | Fairfield Bay – focused on early settlers’ life and prehistoric artifacts, including a 4,000-year-old mortar and pestle.
  • Potts Inn Museum | Pottsville – a preserved antebellum home marks a preservation stop along the original Butterfield Stagecoach route.
  • Arkansas Railroad Museum | Pine Bluff – located in the home of the historical Cotton Belt Machine Shop with a fully restored steam engine and railroad memorabilia.
  • Old Jail Museum | Greenwood – made of rocks quarried in the region, the museum tells the coal mining stories of Sebastian County and the Battle of Devil’s Backbone.

Photo used with permission from Arkansas Parks and Tourism

Cultural Museums

Photo used with permission from Arkansas Parks and Tourism>

Art Museums

History Museums

Photo used with permission from Arkansas Parks and Tourism>

Other destinations to explore might include:

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Keisha (Pittman) McKinney lives in Northwest Arkansas with her chicken man and break-dancing son. Keisha is passionate about connecting people and building community, seeking solutions to the everyday big and small things, and encouraging others through the mundane, hard, and typical that life often brings. She put her communications background to work as a former Non-profit Executive Director, college recruiter and fundraiser, small business trainer, and Digital Media Director at a large church in Northwest Arkansas. Now, she is using those experiences through McKinney Media Solutions and her blog @bigpittstop, which includes daily adventures, cooking escapades, #bigsisterchats, the social justice cases on her heart, and all that she is learning as a #boymom! Keisha loves to feed birds, read the stack on her nightstand, do dollar store crafts, cook recipes from her Pinterest boards, and chase everyday adventures on her Arkansas bucket list.

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One response to “Summer Bucket List: Arkansas Museums”

  1. […] military museums would undoubtedly be great additions to your family’s summer bucket list or day trips to keep your children busy before school starts back. So where will you go […]

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