Bentonville (Waltonville) Trails Seg 14

Seg #14 Bella Vista/Bentonville (“Waltonville”) AR Trails: 4/9/13

Start	Bella Vista, AR	N  36.43361W-94.22905	N-S miles 9.9*
End	Rogers, AR	N   36.29126W-94.17176	Trl lgth13.6 Ride 27.5mi

 

It was after three o’clock before I got to Arkansas and the North Bentonville Trailhead. The ducks by the lake were in a row---a good sign for me to squeeze in most of my trail riding before dark.

 It didn’t take long before I realized that although the town was named Bentonville, it was really Waltonville, as in Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. I am certain he dumped tons of money into this area. Apparently in the early days he intrigued enough locals to invest in his enterprise, which led to many a millionaire in the Bentonville area. The whole area is neat, clean and upscale. The downtown has been restored and is loaded with fine shops, restaurants and theatres. The high school appears to have everything a college campus would boast. There is an indoor practice facility and stadium that puts most FCS and some BCS colleges and universities to shame.
 
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a beautiful building filled with historical, contemporary and modern American art. The bicycle trail runs through sculpture gardens behind the museum.

Alice Walton, Sam’s daughter, is the
major benefactor of this 220,000
square foot building and grounds
surrounding Crystal Bridges museum.

A Place Where They Cried commemorates the
Native Americans that perished during the forced
migration/"relocation" under Andrew Jackson in
the 1880's (see Post # 1 Maiden Ride Epilogue)

The Trail of Tears commemorative display below reminded me of a mini Stonehenge in England. Connie and I attempted to go there when I was on R &R while with the US Air Force in the Azores, Portugal. Problems with train connections prevented us from getting to Stonehenge but years later Connie got there with her mom.    
There are many other pieces of sculpture on the museum grounds, from a life sized pregnant sow to Roxy Paines’ incredible stainless steel tree entitled Yield. Crystal Bridges is the first major art museum built since 1974. It’s a trip worth taking. I hope to take Connie there when I head to Oklahoma to do Tulsa and Oklahoma City trails.


Mazer gives a Thumbs Up for
Yield by Roxy Paine

I ran out of daylight so found a motel and I finished off the last ten miles of the Bentonville ride Tuesday morning. It had rained all night and threatened to do so in the morning but other than a few sprinkles, I escaped the down pours that crashed on me just after pulling out of town. I don’t like driving at night, in the rain and especially at night in the rain. The only good thing was it was daylight most of the way back to Coralville. But, the pitchfork and hammer handle downpours coupled with pea soup fog, limited visibility to a few hundred feet, particularly when a huge semi-truck came whizzing past.  Damn those guys!

Nine and a half hours later, I was back in Coralville bushed but no worse for wear except for my sore ribs :-(