If I join a band, I may name it “Two Days in Little Rock“…but as usual that comment has very little to do with this post.
Although Little Rock is the largest city in Arkansas, it’s home to only about 200,000 people. Its downtown is very walkable and a good way to see sections of the city is along the Arkansas River Trail – a 15.6 mile loop that runs through town and connects many of the tourist attractions.
We rode part of this trail but during the ride had a minor disagreement, which I took personally, and in a huff, I turned back for the RV. Off to a little rock(y) start (pun intended), we switched gears and drove over to the State Capitol for a self-guided tour.
This Capitol is not as ornate as many that we’ve seen, but we did like it. There’s an understated elegance to it. The exterior is made of limestone and its shaped much like the US Capitol. Its original doors, made of thick bronze, were purchased from Tiffany & Company for $10,000 in the early 1900s. The 2-ton chandelier that hangs suspended from the rotunda’s ceiling is approximately 12 feet in diameter and 18 feet high. Pretty barrel-vaulted skylights line the grand staircase. Dark peach, ribbon-like material hangs within one of the smaller skylit domes, I think in part, to help reduce the noise that comes the large amount of marble used throughout for floors and walls.
When my parents think of Little Rock, they likely think of the “Little Rock Nine” and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement. The Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site was the center of school desegregation in 1957 after the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. This high school is still an active school, so ranger-led history tours must be reserved ahead of time.
When I think of Little Rock, I think of Bill Clinton and one of the best things to do in Little Rock is visit the Clinton Presidential Center and Park. This 3-floor presidential museum has interactive exhibits and more than a million photos and artifacts. The museum walks through US and World events that occurred during Clinton’s eight-year presidency. Four interesting things:
- Presidential itineraries are on display and while we all instinctively know that the US President is very busy, to see a daily schedule broken down into 15 minute increments was fascinating.
- Throughout the museum and in these itineraries visitors are provided with a real sense of the vast number of topics that a president has to deal with on any given day – unemployment, healthcare, trade, protection, foreign affairs, the environment, etc.
- The museum contains a full-scale replica of the Oval Office and his Cabinet Room which were both smaller than I thought they would be.
- There was minimal information on Bill Clinton’s impeachment for lying under oath to a federal grand jury in relation to the affair he had with unpaid intern, Monica Lewinsky.
To date, this presidential library remains the largest in terms of materials (documents, pictures, artifacts, etc) and it is the most expensive, costing $200 million. It was the first presidential library we’d been to and now we’re hooked.
Downtown Little Rock was very quiet that day we were there, but there’s some interesting architecture and we enjoyed a great meal as well.
Like most larger cities, Little Rock has plenty of other activities – shopping, museums, great restaurants, etc. that we didn’t have time for but of the the activities we did, our top pick and the one thing you should do if you ever find yourself in Little Rock with any time on your hands, is visit the Clinton Presidential Center and Park.
