Illustration by Brainstorm
Northeast Arkansas is a land dominated—geographically, economically, and culturally—by the Mississippi River, which courses along its eastern border. The nutrient-rich soil of the floodplain, known as the Arkansas Delta, supported the large-scale cultivation of cotton beginning in the early 19th century. The reliance on this single cash crop for nearly a century after the Civil War had profound economic and societal impacts. Travelers across the tabletop-flat fields spreading to the horizon in all directions—and today planted with soybeans, corn, and rice—will discover stories tied to the farming of cotton at sites from the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum to the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, as well as the company town of Wilson, which has been reborn as an upscale resort destination. Along the way, visitors will also learn about the birth of rockabilly and the blues, the nation’s deadliest maritime disaster, and the mastodons that once roamed the area.
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Courtesy Arkansas Tourism
Big River Crossing
This longest pedestrian bridge over the Mississippi River stretches almost a mile from Memphis, Tennessee on the eastern bank to West Memphis, Arkansas. Take in views of the river and the Memphis skyline, and straddle the state line at the center of the span some 10 stories above the churning Mississippi. Opened in 2016, the crossing also serves as the trailhead for the Big River Trail, a 70-mile series of riverside biking and hiking trails running atop Arkansas’s river levees.
Photo by Whitney Tomasino
KWEM Radio
From its first broadcast in 1947 through the early 1960s, this West Memphis radio station introduced emerging blues and rockabilly musicians to its listeners. Drawn to the town by its 30-plus honky-tonks and juke joints, artists including Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and Ike Turner appeared on air to promote their music alongside performers such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Visit the campus of Arkansas State University Mid-South to see a replica of the historic studio.
Tacker’s Shake Shack
Founded in 1977, this family-owned burger and shake restaurant in Marion also serves up plenty of nostalgia, from checkered tablecloths and a vintage jukebox to walls crowded with John Wayne and Elvis Presley memorabilia. Try one of the themed burgers, such as the Burning Love topped with habanero-jalapeño cheese and jalapeño ranch, and don’t dream of skipping the shake. Choose from more than 60 flavors, from papaya and pistachio to lemon ice box and banana pudding (complete with bits of vanilla wafer).
Courtesy Arkansas Tourism
Sultana Disaster Museum
In the predawn hours of April 27, 1865, the Sultana, a severely overcrowded paddle-wheel steamboat traveling up the Mississippi, exploded, burned, and sank near the town of Marion. Of the 2,130 passengers and crew aboard, 1,169 were killed; of those, 1,047 were Union soldiers recently freed from Confederate POW camps. Learn about the events leading up to the tragedy, hear the stories of victims and survivors, and discover the reasons the disaster has largely slipped from history at this impactful museum.
Photo by Tom Smith
The Louis Hotel
The centerpiece of the reimagined town of Wilson—once the seat of a cotton empire and designed in the 1920s to resemble an English village—this 16-room luxury inn occupies a century-old Tudor-style building on the town square. After enjoying a complimentary welcome cocktail at Staple, the opulent lobby bar, guests may opt for a game of croquet on the village green or take in a sunset on the expansive rooftop deck. End the day with a soak in your suite’s 65-gallon tub, then slide between sheets woven from Wilson cotton.
Photo by Whitney Tomasino
Wilson Cafe
While its exterior exudes English cottage charm, the town’s eponymous restaurant features a dining room that evokes the polished, light-flooded brasseries of Paris. The dishes, however, are unmistakably rooted in the Delta and regularly draw diners from as far away as Memphis. Standouts include the seared bone-in pork chop with a mustard and sorghum molasses glaze and the pickle-brined fried chicken. Both come with buttermilk mashed potatoes and are best accompanied by an appetizer of deviled eggs.
Hampson Archeological Museum State Park
This museum in downtown Wilson presents the story of the Nodena site, an excavated village inhabited by Native Americans during the Late Mississippian period (1400–1600 CE). The artifacts—which include a host of ceramic vessels, from utilitarian pieces used for cooking and storage to ceremonial items such as a rare head pot, which resembles a human head and was used in burial rites—were collected by amateur archaeologist and museum founder James K. Hampson and illuminate the culture of the agrarian civilization that once thrived just miles away.
Photo by Whitney Tomasino
White’s Mercantile
Situated in the town’s former gas station, the Wilson outpost of this modern-day general store offers many of the items, from housewares to books and cards, that shoppers will find in the original Nashville location. Founded by singer-songwriter and country music royalty Holly Williams, the granddaughter of Hank Williams Sr. and daughter of Hank Williams Jr., the store’s inventory also includes plenty of Wilson gear, from caps to tees, as well as vintage postcards of the picture-perfect town.
Courtesy Johnny Cash Boyhood Home
Johnny Cash Boyhood Home
In 1934, the Dyess Colony was established as part of a New Deal program to relocate and aid 500 impoverished Arkansas families. The Cash family moved into farmhouse 266 the next year, when Johnny was three, and began working its 20 acres. Tours of the house begin at the Dyess Colony visitors center in the former town center. After checking out exhibits on the colony, Depression-era America, and Johnny’s boyhood (including report cards, school yearbooks, and family photos), visitors take a shuttle to the restored home, featuring many original furnishings, including the family piano.
Courtesy Southern Tenant Farmers Museum
Southern Tenant Farmers Museum
Situated in two historical buildings in downtown Tyronza that once housed the bank, barbershop, dry cleaners, and service station, this museum spotlights the lives of sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the Mississippi River Delta. Peer inside a traditional shotgun shack and hoist a (relatively modest) 15-pound sack of cotton. Learn more about the rise of the farm labor movement through photos, oral histories, and vintage newsreels in this space that, in 1934, served as an early headquarters of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, known for its groundbreaking commitment to racial and gender equality.
Courtesy Historic Dyess Colony
Arkansas State University Museum
Explore the cultural and natural history of northeast Arkansas at this Jonesboro institution. Stroll the streets of the Old Town gallery lined with turn-of-the-20th-century Arkansas storefronts—including a dentist’s office, printing press, barber shop, and mercantile—displaying hundreds of artifacts. Travel further back in time and encounter the ancient peoples of the region in the Native American gallery or journey deeper still to the end of the last Ice Age when giant mammals ruled the land. Check out mastodon fossils collected at sites across the state, and visit Mona, the mastodon skeleton cast from some of those bones.
The Hotel at Huntington Square
A few blocks from the shops and restaurants of bustling Main Street—and less than a mile from Native Brew Works, Jonesboro’s first and only microbrewery—this boutique hotel offers the ideal home base from which to explore the college town. There’s also plenty of fun to be had on-property, from the swank Roaring Twenties–themed lounge to the Porch, a standalone bar and grill offering tasty snacks (wings, sliders, and funnel cake) as well as a pickleball court, pool table, and board games galore.
Courtesy Arkansas Tourism
Skinny J’s
While there are plenty of longstanding favorites on the menu—from deep-fried Reuben eggrolls served with Thousand Island dipping sauce to the grilled chicken filet topped with bacon, fried jalapeños, and housemade pimento cheese—it’s the hand-cut steaks for which this family-owned Jonesboro restaurant has become renowned. Choose your favorite cut and load up on premium sides: Brussels sprouts, sherry mushrooms, and fried green tomatoes.
Delicious Detour
Head 30 minutes north of Wilson on U.S. 61 to Blytheville to experience some of the South’s best barbecue. Longstanding establishments include Yank’s Famous Barbeque, the Kream Kastle, and the Dixie Pig, home of the iconic chopped pork sandwich known simply as “the pig sandwich.”
This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Southbound.
