Capacity for some tours may be limited.
One of the world's greatest charities is headquartered here in Arkansas. You'll experience how Heifer International provides sustainable solutions to global hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. We'll travel to Heifer Ranch, where more than 28,000 visitors each year become familiar with the root causes of poverty and hunger and Heifer's work to help the struggling achieve self-reliance. This working farm and ranch includes more than 15 species of exotic and domestic farm animals. It also allows visitors to learn about world issues while gaining a better understanding of how their choices affect the world.
(Limit: 50)
For decades, Little Rock has been a hub for national and international news. From the 1957 Central High School Crisis to the Clinton Presidential Library, so much of American history has played out right here. That is why we add a dose of news and a dash of Hollywood to this tour. Not only will you visit the landmarks, you'll watch and remember the news clips that made these sites famous. Highlights include "the Little Rock", Old Statehouse, Governor's Mansion, Quapaw Quarter, Central High, Clinton Presidential Library, The Old Mill, and many other stops! By the end, you'll know why it's called sightseeing…with a twist. This is award-winning and very popular.
(Limit: 30)
It's beautiful, exciting, and has a steamy history! As the oldest park in the National Park System, stories about Hot Springs date back 10,000 years. Known as "The Valley of the Vapors" and "The Spa City", water gushes from the mountainside at a constant 143' degrees. Relaxing, medicinal, and revitalizing... this resort town in the Ouachita Mountains has lured American Indian Tribes, gangsters Al Capone and Bugs Moran, and millions of visitors to enjoy shopping, art galleries, museums, and world famous "Bathhouse Row." Also known as Bill Clinton's boyhood town, you'll see the former president's home and favorite hangouts…and hear stories you won't find anywhere else! This tour also includes a stop at Garvan Gardens, a 210 acre wooded peninsula on Lake Hamilton that has been transformed into a world-class botanical garden.
(Limit: 30)
Little Rock is in the forefront in the "Green" movement. From environmentally friendly buildings, to wildlife areas, our city has much to show the world about recycling, adapting to the surroundings and community involvement in making the world a better place.
The tour will include a tour of the Heifer International Headquarters, which serves as a unique and important Education Center for the public. Its environmentally friendly construction serves as a reminder of the mission and work of Heifer International around the globe, in addition to highlighting the vital need for promoting sustainability in our everyday lives. Heifer International is a world-wide hunger relief organization founded in 1930 with its headquarters near the Clinton Library in downtown Little Rock.
Other green buildings include the headquarters of Winrock International. Winrock is a nonprofit organization that supports sustainable development. In a staff of around 700 all over the world, about 70 employees are based at Winrock's headquarters in Arkansas, which was, until recently, on Petit Jean Mountain in rural Morrilton. That campus was expensive to maintain and required a lot of staff travel, so the board decided to find an alternative use for that facility and move its headquarters to Little Rock. We will also have the opportunity to tour the Audobon Nature Center at Gillam Park in East Little Rock. Acreage surrounding the Center includes both the city-owned Fourche Creek wetlands and the unique soils and plants of Granite Mountain in adjacent Gillam Park. The 2,000 acres available for use by the Nature Center offer a vast and richly diverse "lab" for young people to learn about conservation, restoration, wildlife and plants. Trails designed for a variety of learning experiences will surround the Center.
Note: The tour on Monday will begin with lunch at the Nature Center. The tour will end on Tuesday with a "snack break" at the Nature Center.
(Limit: 30)
This tour features the museum that interprets rural life back during the Plantation Era, The Plantation Agricultural Museum in Scott, AR. Museum exhibits and interpretive programs interpret the history of cotton agriculture in Arkansas from statehood in 1836 through World War II when agricultural practices quickly became mechanized. Visit the Dortch Gin Exhibit Building and learn how cotton was grown and ginned.
Fourteen miles southeast of the city of Little Rock stands Marlsgate Plantation, a stately columned Greek Revival Mansion shaded by ancient oaks and a pecan grove overlooking the waters of Bearskin Lake. Majestically rising amid acres of rice, cotton and soybeans, Marlsgate is a reflection of the opulent plantation era when cotton grew tall and there was a privileged class of wealth in the Arkansas Delta. Home to David Paul Garner, Jr. and his family, Marlsgate Plantation is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Marlsgate is located a short distance from the small agricultural community of Scott, Arkansas, which formed a nucleus for the cotton plantation culture that developed and flourished here in the early nineteenth century. Slave-owning planters migrated to the region in the early territorial years following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
A stop at the largest Antique Showroom in Arkansas, Morris Antiques, in Keo, Arkansas, will be another stop on this wonderful tour. Keo has become particularly notable in recent years for its marketing of antiques, with the largest dealer — Morris Antiques — operating a 10-building complex including space for item sales and antique restoration. As in much of the surrounding region, agriculture is the other driving economic force in the area around Keo, primarily in the raising of catfish and cultivation of cotton and pecans.
Note: On Monday, Box lunches and drinks will be served on the tour. Tuesday, May 8, drinks will be provided at the end of the tour.
(Limit: 30)
Experience for yourself the longest pedestrian and bicycle bridge in the world – the Big Dam Bridge. The bridge opened with much fanfare in 2006. The tour will start on the Little Rock Side of the bridge where you will walk the ¾ miles across the scenic Arkansas River. Please wear comfortable shoes.
The bridge was built and designed for recruiting jobs and families to the area and also to promote healthy lifestyle choices for our residents. The 3,463-foot bridge links 25 miles of bike-hike trails in the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, as well as connecting two recreation areas - Murray Park and Cooks Landing. With the approaches, it measures 4,300 feet.
The riverfront tour continues with Stephens Dickey Field, which just opened on April 12, 2007. Tour the newest minor league baseball stadium in the U.S., with 5.500 fixed seats along the riverfront in North Little Rock. The park was built with $32.6 million, financed by a sales tax in North Little Rock and revenues from the Arkansas Travelers, who recently relocated from a Ray Winder field in Little Rock.
The Arkansas Maritime Museum includes USS Razorback Submarine, where guests, learn about wartime service, her activities during the Cold War and Vietnam and her service in the Turkish Navy as TCG Muratreis. Visitors can see how submariners lived, where they slept next to their torpedoes, where they ate, and where they worked. You will be using the same hatches and ladders that the crew used when Razorback was an active duty submarine. You need to be able to climb down and up a 10-foot vertical ladder to enter the submarine. Participants should not be claustrophobic.
Note: On Monday, Box lunches and drinks will be served at Cook's Landing. Tuesday, May 8, drinks will be provided at Cook's Landing at the end of the tour.
(Limit: 30)
Take an educational and gripping tour of Little Rock's black heritage. The city was at one time a national focus point in the fight for civil rights. We'll take an informative and honest ride back in time to show you the struggles, victories, and accomplishments of African Americans in Central Arkansas. We'll show you the courage of "The Little Rock Nine", the first group of black students to integrate the largest high school in America and even meet members of the group. We'll also venture down historic 9th Street, formerly known as Little Rock's "Little Harlem". We'll discuss President Bill Clinton's solid relationship with African Americans and the basis for that relationship.
(Limit: 50)
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