This portion of our journey to Destin was to be based in Bentonville, Arkansas, instead of Fayetteville, but the hotel prices in Bentonville are pricier, so we opted to stay in Fayetteville and do a day trip to Bentonville. This way we are seeing a bit of both cities and getting another notch in our Graduate Hotel list.
Both cities have so far really impressed us with their natural beauty (rolling hills and lots of trees) and also with the cleanliness and attractiveness of their downtown areas.
One might say that Bentonville is the city that Sam Walton built. While the founder of Walmart didn’t physically build any buildings, his first self-named store is located there, the first Walmart store was located in the nearby Rogers, Arkansas, and the Walmart dollars continue to fund a lot of cultural activities in the area. We took advantage of some of these today.
At some point in his reading, Bob had learned about the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, which is supported by Walmart so that there is no entry fee. It sits on a beautiful wooded 134 acre campus near a creek that also houses the Heartland Whole Health Institute, the Alice Walton School of Medicine, and lots of walking and art trails throughout the grounds. The art museum was our goal for the day, but in planning our visit we also learned that there was a Frank Lloyd Wright designed building near the museum, so we started there this morning with a $12 per person guided tour. Self-guided tours are free.
We learned that the home was built for the Bachmans from designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the home was originally located in New Jersey. The house had four owners after being built, the last of which looked to have the house moved to save it as it had gone through several floods and two hurricanes. It was taken apart (without the extra rooms that had been added) and moved to a site near the museum and rebuilt 10 years ago to match Wright’s original design.
which looks out onto trees and a creek as the original location did
After the tour, we walked back to the Crystal Bridges Art Museum to look at the art. The art is impressive, but we loved the architecture of the building almost as much.
set around man-made ponds and connected by walkways.
A few samples of some of the American art on display—
Nicholas Galanin, 2024
The ceramic one is “Audio Visual,” by Robert Arneson, 1974.
After we had looked through the museum and walked some of the trails, we drove into downtown Bentonville to the Walmart Museum which is located in the former Walton’s store.
The museum provided a good general overview of Sam Walton’s life and career. He was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma in 1918, and at 13, he became the youngest Eagle Scout in Missouri. He met his wife Helen in Claremore, Oklahoma, where he was waiting to be called up for service. Another fun fact for us was that he started his retail career in Des Moines, Iowa, as a management trainee with J. C. Penney.
that the first retail store Sam and Helen bought
was a Ben Franklin in Newport, Arkansas, in 1945.
The store that the museum is located in was their second store, but the first one with their name, Walton. In this store he began using the new self-service method of retail which allowed customers to peruse aisles of goods instead of having to ask clerks for what they wanted.
He opened the first Walmart in 1962; however, he opened 17 variety stores before focusing exclusively on Walmart.
from Walmart and Sam’s Club stores since 1996.
where the museum is located
Peckish Travels 