The Walmart Museum stands on the downtown square of Bentonville, in the space where Sam Walton opened the first store carrying a shortened version of his family's name in 1950. It began on a rainy day in 1990 as a visitors center, which Walton chose to call that after seeing the Hallmark Visitors Center in Kansas City, and then governor Bill Clinton attended and played saxophone. Betty Holmes curated that first version. The building closed in 2009, reopened in May 2011, took the name Walmart Museum in 2012, closed again in November 2022 while its contents moved to a Bentonville heritage lab, and reopened in its original space in early 2025.
Inside, the entrance floor is the original mismatched red and green tile Walton bought at a discount. The main gallery runs from a timeline of the company's origins to his Presidential Medal of Freedom, Helen Walton's wedding dress, the door of the Ben Franklin store he opened in Newport in 1945, and a recreated office as it looked in his lifetime. The last room holds his 1979 Ford F-150 pickup, which Holmes drove in after his death. A hologram of Walton talks with visitors, and the Spark Cafe serves ice cream from Yarnell's in a 1950s diner setting.
The museum is at 105 N. Main Street and admission is free. Its listed hours run late, to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and shorter on Sunday. There are ramps, an elevator, tactile tables and closed-captioned videos.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour