Visiting Mississippi River Delta

There’s plenty to do on the Mississippi River Delta as the weather warms up. Pay a visit to adventurous Arkansas towns like Blytheville, Forrest City, and West Memphis for spring and summer festivals, kids’ activities and a little culture. Explore eastern Arkansas by motorcycle along the Crowley’s Ridge Parkway, or let your interest perk in nearby museums with a focus on natural history, Arkansas’ past, and even Ernest Hemingway. Stop in Blytheville for the Thunder Bayou Golf Links – a stop along the Natural State Golf Trail – and visit Village Creek State Park near Forrest City, or Main Street in West Memphis. It’s all here on the Delta.

Set in northeaster Arkansas, Blytheville is a charming city with plenty of quirky finds for its visitors. Browse through That Bookstore in Blytheville – a Main Street-bookshop established in 1976. Encompassing more than 2,400-square-feet and over 25,000 titles, That Bookstore in Blytheville features autographed and first editions, staff picks, and Arkansas Delta Made crafts for sale. For a better look into Blytheville’s backstory, check out the Blytheville Heritage Museum, or stop by the Great River Heritage Museum.

If those Blytheville suggestions got your motor running, then you’re going to love the nearby Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center – a haven for museums hoppers and literature lovers. Found in nearby Piggott, the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum – the site where Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms – is listed on the National Historic Register.

Blytheville is 60 miles north of West Memphis, a suburb of Memphis found on the western banks of the Mississippi River. Check out the 2012 Memphis Music and Heritage Festival this Labor Day weekend in Memphis, or head to historic Beale Street for great eateries, live music, and boutique shopping. Stick to the west side of the Mississippi for shopping in downtown West Memphis, also known as the Broadway district, and attend the 2012 Blues on Broadway festivity in early May. West Memphis is the birthplace of B.B. King, you know. Visiting later in the summer? Don’t miss 2012's Taste of the Town, also along Main Street West Memphis, for traditional Arkansas fare – now 10 years running.

Further along the Crowley’s Ridge Parkway, Forrest City is another active town known as the Jewel of the Delta. Here you can get in some outdoor activity at the nearby Village Creek State Park during your spring or summer in eastern Arkansas. Visitors to this state park set on the Mississippi Alluvial Plain may fish for bass, bream, and catfish in Lake Austell and Lake Dunn, or take advantage of more than 25 miles of multi-use trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding. The Village Creek State Park 18-hole golf course – Ridges at Village Creek – reopens to the public in May; so don’t miss the fun this summer in Arkansas’ largest state park.

Mississippi River Delta Hotel Map