21 State Parks in 2021 Challenge- #9: Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources
We spent our Father’s Day weekend visiting Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources. Daniel requested this special park because of his ties to the oil and gas industry. This Park has an interactive visitor’s center, outdoor trail through Oil Field Park, and fun hands-on programs for the kids. This is our #9 park in the 21 State Parks in 2021 Challenge.
#9 Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources
Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources is located just outside of El Dorado in Smackover, AR. El Dorado has been voted America’s Best Main Street Downtown and is filled with small shops and restaurants. We highly recommend eating at Pupps BBQ if you visit downtown. The food was delicious!
Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources Visitor’s Center
We can’t express enough how friendly and helpful the staff in this visitor’s center is. Morgan was able to get her passport stamp, and Daniel shopped for unique oilfield related items in the gift shop.
By using the Events tab on the park website you can find out what special activities and tours are available each day. They also have a Facebook page where they post the events. While Daniel is taking his time going through the indoor museum, Morgan and I are enjoying learning about how paraffin is extracted from oil and then used to make things like crayons, candles, and make-up.
The tinkering studio is also available for kids of all ages to use. The tinkering studio is made up of recyclable materials and kids can craft them into whatever their imagination leads them to. Morgan made a parachute out of a plastic basket, tape, and a plastic bag. She was then able to test out it’s flying ability by inserting it into a wind tunnel. Her design flew perfectly. The binoculars I made did not fly.
The indoor museum also houses a complete replica of what the town would have looked like in the 1920s during the Southern Arkansas oil boom. You can stroll through and take a visit to the general store, theater, newspaper office, and boarding house.
Oil Field Park at the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources
Oil Field Park is made up of different exhibits that tell the process of how oil is extracted from the earth. It is an outdoor park with a walking trail that houses several different pieces of oil field equipment including a replica of a 112-foot derrick and a central power station that could pull up to 15 wells.
Kids’ Activities
Besides just looking at the exhibits the kids can actively experience learning through different programs they offer. Some of the exhibits are interactive. The kids can turn a handle to operate a small pump jack. They also offer an outdoor scavenger hunt, a nature journal, and a maze activity sheet.
Final Thoughts
This Park is worth a trip to southern Arkansas. Although its probably overlooked as compared to some of the larger parks in Arkansas you can spend several hours here. The indoor and outdoor museum exhibits are very interesting even to someone not interested in the oil and gas industry like me. For someone like Daniel, who is very interested, there is a lot to see. Morgan enjoyed the kids’ crayon making and tinkering studio so much that she now says this may rank higher than the turtles at Lake Dardanelle State Park. Coming from her that is saying a lot!
We hope that you will enjoy the indoor museum and outdoor park as much as we did. If you do come down to this area be sure and visit our next stop Logoly State Park which is our #10 park in the 21 Arkansas State parks in 2021 Challenge . Remember… Life’s Short… Take the Trip!
Ready to start planning your own adventure? Email us at: amberh@destinationsinflorida.com
