There's plenty to do at home

Economy keeping you close to home this summer? You don't have to cancel your vacation all together. There are so many nice, beautiful places to visit and things to do right in our own backyard.

There are numerous museums such as Wilson Hampson Museum (655-8622), The Painted House, Lepanto USA Museum in Lepanto (475-2384), Delta Area Museum in Marked Tree (358-4998), Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza (487-2909), and Trumann Museum (487-7744).

The state parks in our area include:

Lake Poinsett State Park in Harrisburg offers picnic areas, fishing, camping and hiking trails.

Lake Charles State Park is eight miles northwest of Hoxie and provides campsites, 645 acres of spring-fed waters for fishing, picnic sites, hiking trails, pavilion, swimming beach and playground.

Blanchard Springs Caverns, just 15 miles north of Mt. View, has its caves, of course, but it also has campgrounds, picnic areas, fishing and hiking.

In Parkin, the Archaeological Park is a 17 acre Native American village in existence from 1000 A.D. to 1550 A.D.

Village Creek State Park is seven miles southeast of Wynne and has two lakes, a new golf course, campgrounds, cabins, four pavilions, playgrounds, baseball fields, trails for hiking, bikes and horses, tennis courts, swimming areas and fishing.

Buffalo National River is great fishing flows roughly 150 miles and offers wonder 95,000 acres of public whitewater in the AR Ozarks.

Greers Ferry Lake located between Clinton and Heber Springs and is the 3rd largest lake in Arkansas Ozark Mountains (31,500 surface acres). Little Red River provides excellent trout fishing and crystal clear waters for water sports, boating and camping.

Crowley's Ridge Parkway National Scenic Byway is a 198 mile length from Piggott to Helena passes through five state parks, a national forest, a Civil war site, and the former home of Ernest Hemingway (910-8080)

Forrest Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center is indescribably beautiful must visit www.crowleysridge.org. (933-6787)

White River National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center is also an indescribable must see www.whiteriver.fws.gov (946-1468)

Harrisburg and Trumann have wonderful city parks with picnic areas, tennis and basketball courts and softball fields. Trumann has a water park (note Marked Tree should have theirs up and going before the end of the summer) and Harrisburg has a city pool.

Not to mention that we have access to the larger cities of Jonesboro, Paragould, and Blytheville. We are also not that far from Memphis, St. Louis or Little Rock which also provide us with a whole other world of wonderful.

I am sure that there is so much more we have overlooked, but if you go out there and explore, you can find even more right outside your back door.