Ozark Folk Center State Park

Mountain View's folk festival came first. The Arkansas Folk Festival began there in April 1963, run by the Ozark Foothills Handicraft Guild and the Rackensack Folklore Society, and after about ten years its backers decided the Ozarks needed a permanent home. The park grew partly out of a plan to pay for a sewer. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the idea came from a 1963 session between Mountain View leaders and John Opitz of the federal Area Redevelopment Administration, about winning federal money for water and sewer lines by building a music auditorium.

Congressman Wilbur Mills set aside $2.5 million in grants and loans in 1968, after heavy lobbying by the songwriter Jimmy Driftwood and others. Construction began in 1971, the contractor ran into financial trouble in 1972, and the Department of Parks and Tourism took over operations that May. The park opened in May 1973 at a cost of about $3.4 million. A year later Bessie Moore organized the Committee of 100 to raise money for its programs.

Today the Craft Village has more than 20 working artisans, including a blacksmith and potters, who demonstrate and sell their work Tuesday through Saturday in season. The Heritage Herb Garden grows pass-along, medicinal and native plants, and the Blacksmith Stage hosts music several times a day. Concerts fill the 1,000-seat Ozark Highlands Theater on scheduled dates, and the park's Skillet Restaurant serves Southern cooking. Check the park's calendar for the season dates before you go.