Spring Break in Arkansas

Spring break! Kids and parents looking for a little vacation! We headed south into central Arkansas, a new destination for us despite how long we’d lived nearby.

With an overnight in Hot Springs and then in Little Rock, we found more than enough to keep us busy and bring us back. Hot Springs’ combination of fading, current and (possibly) returning glory; Little Rock’s revitalized downtown; the powerful story of the Little Rock Nine who integrated one of the south’s largest high schools, and the amazing work of Heifer International made for a great trip. Even those who cast their votes for St. Louis in our family balloting were glad we came here. And we’ll come back—there’s plenty left to do.


Hot Springs
We all enjoyed the Fordyce Bathhouse, the pinnacle of the spa culture that brought Hot Springs to prominence. Its beautiful public sitting spaces, the elaborate rooms for experiencing the hot waters, and the glimpse into the resort world of 60 years ago was fun for everyone. Situated in America's most unusual National Park, the combination of architecture, culture, and not-so-natural mountainside was interesting to explore.



Bathhouse Row, Hot Springs

Outside Little Rock
The Heifer Ranch at Perryville gave us some insight into how this 60-year-old organization is changing lives of people around the world. Dedicated to "Ending Hunger, [and] Caring for the Earth", Heifer is headquartered in Little Rock, but still maintains this 1200-acre farm about 45 minutes away. Part global outreach center, part demonstration farm, part petting zoo, it was a great family excursion.

Little Rock
Any encounter with animals is sure to please our kids, even though teen, not toddler is the best description of them all. The duck-centered pageantry of the Peabody Hotel (formerly the Excelsior) in downtown Little Rock is a short but fun daily ceremony to experience.

The Clinton Presidential Library and Museum chronicles the eight years of the 42nd president’s administration, contains full scale reproductions of the Cabinet Room and Oval Office, and incorporates a wealth of informative interactive displays and exhibits. There’s almost too much information here to comprehend at one time, but the content and the building itself are well worth a visit.

Quick Tips:

Consider spending at least a day and a half in Little Rock. There was a surprising amount to do, and following the 11 o’clock march of the Ducks at the Peabody, we hadn’t left ourselves enough time.

Northern Arkansas is beautiful. If you come this way, be sure to find a way to get out and enjoy the rolling countryside. Our drive from Little Rock to Perryville to Russellville to Harrison—only 30 miles of which was along interstate highway—was a highlight of our trip and a great way to start the trip back home.

Best Way To Get Around:

Both Hot Springs and Little Rock were easy to negotiate by car. Parking on the street was possible in both places with only a minor amount of looking. Downtown Hot Springs is a pretty small area, and easy to cover on foot. Central Little Rock includes the Old State House, the Peabody, the River Market (a great place for lunch, with a few dozen vendors around the restored building that forms the food court). Other places in the city, such as Central High School, are only a few minutes away.

The major road south into Little Rock is US 65. I-430 bypasses the city to the west, and is the route to take if you’re skipping the capital to head to Hot Springs. Be sure to leave I-30 for US 70: you’ll like the 30 miles on this road a lot better than the same amount of interstate.

When it’s time to head back north, consider a different route: from Hot Springs, Arkansas 7 heads due north to Harrison. It’s not a fast trip, but it sure is beautiful. We joined it further north at Russellville, after leaving the Heifer Ranch at Perryville. For most of the trip, it winds through the Ouachita National Forest, and is simply gorgeous. There are signs marking it as a scenic byway, and it is certainly the road less traveled. As an extra bonus, you cross the Buffalo National River (the nation’s first) at Pruitt, where the steep stone bluffs tower over the water, and can be seen with a short walk down to the water’s edge.

We drove down from Missouri on a beautiful spring afternoon. From Little Rock, you can take I-30 to US 70, which pleasantly winds through the moderately hilly pine-covered countryside. The city of Hot Springs is centered around the narrow gap between Hot Springs and West Mountains and spills out to the north and south. That narrow band of city actually splits the National Park, giving it the shape of a long, thin 'C' opening to the south. Due to a premature exit, we actually circled all the way around through the eastern portion of the park on Highway 7, and approached central Hot Springs from the north.This was one of America’s first resort towns. It began as a site for pilgrims in search of better health, despite its exceedingly remote location in the western wilderness of the early 19th century. Before the railroad, just the trip from Little Rock was 10 hours. When the steel rails improved its accessibility, bathhouses sprang up like mushrooms along the edge of Hot Springs Mountain, and the town enjoyed a wild-west-like reputation.Little is left of that period. The Hot Springs of today largely dates from the first half of the 20th century, the second generation of buildings constructed by a new ethos: to make this central Arkansas town the equivalent of the European resort spas of Baden-Baden and its like. An incongruity, perhaps, but the feeling is that they nearly succeeded. At least in downtown Hot Springs. Along Central Avenue and Bathhouse Row, you can see the landmarks of that era. The bathhouses themselves, the Arlington Hotel, the Majestic: these places point back to an era of opulence and extravagance. The racetrack (Oaklawn) came in 1904 but came back to life in 1934, another peg in constructing a spa lifestyle around the springs themselves: nightlife, golfing, horseback riding and racing. In their post-WWII heyday, the bathhouses gave 1,000,000 baths per year. But by the 1970s, when the therapeutic effects of bathing were less evident—and as other resort options burgeoned around the country—most bathhouses had closed.The central part of Hot Springs really reminded me of Florida’s older resort towns. The architecture dates from the same period, built when the town was one of the first places the nation came purely for relaxation: sort of a pre-Las Vegas or Atlantic City. The northern part of the city is clearly poorer, which also reminded me of the contrast between the strip in Atlantic City and the neighborhoods behind it.Much of the new development is south. Oaklawn race track is on Central Avenue, 3 miles past the bathhouses, and the major hotel and restaurant chains have built even further south, near the exit off of 270. That’s where we spent the night, at the Hampton Inn. This area feels just like any other similar cluster of development off any other freeway in America.

That’s certainly not true for the city itself. And although Hot Springs’ construction shows its age, that could work to its advantage. The bathhouses, at least externally, are still in great shape, and walking down Central Avenue in front of and then behind them (along the Grand Promenade) is a wonderful trip. The Arlington and Majestic Hotels certainly appear to be solid and attractive enough for a comeback (although reviews on their current state is mixed). With interest in spas on the rise, there’s no reason Hot Springs can’t return. Although only one bathhouse currently operates (the Buckstaff, at the southern end of the Row), another is scheduled to open soon. Central Avenue is already a pleasant mix of interesting shops and typical tourist stuff, and the area appears to have a number of good restaurants. My wife and I both thought we might come back for a getaway sans children. When we do, we’ll look to stay downtown.

Everyone in our family wanted to stop here. There’s something about the injustice of racism that really disturbs childrens sense of fairness and basic right and wrong, and when it intersects with the experience of others who might have been their peers, my children are transfixed. Their interest in the struggles of these years was heightened by the recent 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The family of Linda Brown, the schoolgirl at the center of that case, moved to our town afterwards, and Linda graduated from the high school that my kids will attend. When we added Little Rock to our trip, this shot to the top of the itinerary.

In the late 1950s, Little Rock considered itself a relatively progressive southern city. Race relations seemed calm, with none of the harshly discriminatory practices of the deeper south, and fewer of the tensions as well. Nonetheless, it was segregated, especially in the school system. And as the exhibit at this relatively new (1998) historic site makes clear, there was little that was equal about the resources devoted to Little Rock’s African-American children.

Little Rock Central is a beautiful high school near downtown. It won architectural awards after its completion in 1927, and was considered the state's—if not the region's—most prestigious school. In the wake of the Brown decision, nearly 35 families in Little Rock’s black community considered enrolling their children at Central.

There wasn’t unanimity about the timing or wisdom of this decision. In the end, all but nine families kept their kids at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, the high school for non-whites. The exhibit tells the story of those nine and of Daisy Lee Bates (President of the Arkansas NAACP conference and publisher of the Arkansas State Press, who chronicled and supported the families throughout their ordeal). The Historic Site is actually in the classic old Mobil Gas station across from Central (which is still Little Rock’s premier high school).

We spent an hour here. The exhibit isn’t large, but it’s very well done. Displays, videos, newspapers, and personal testimony chronicle how the crisis emerged, the experience of the kids, and how the episode brought to light tensions Little Rock thought were buried. I didn’t realize that the city closed the school system the following year, hoping to prevent the unpreventable. In the end, an admirable coalition of mothers fought a grass-roots campaign to reopen the schools. Even so, integration proceeded slowly at Central, and even more slowly in the lower grades: Little Rock’s elementary schools remained segregated until 1968.

To reach Central, head along a north/south street—such as Broadway—to Daisy Bates Boulevard (14th Street). Head west; the Visitor Center is on the left, before the School. Allow 45 to 90 minutes: we read nearly all the exhibit material, watched the video interviews with current civic leaders and struggle participants, and shopped in the small but impressive bookstore. You can walk around the school's exterior (and the commemorative garden alongside) but not the interior.

Sixteenth-century explorer Hernando de Soto (well, allegedly) was the first tourist to bathe in the streams of Hot Springs Mountain. By 1825, people regularly came for healing baths in the 145° waters. Fearing damage to the area, Congress declared it a Federal Reservation in 1832, and changed it to a National Park in 1920. It has lots of distinctions—its history made it the "first protected area in the park system," set aside 40 years before Congress made Yellowstone the world’s first National Park. It’s the smallest (5500 acres), the only one in a city, and with Main Street bisecting the park.

Fordyce Bathhouse—Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center
We arrived on a spring afternoon, circling the park’s eastern edge on US 70B by Gulpha Gorge. Driving between North and Indian Mountains, you’d never know you were nearing an urban park. Highway 7 then took us through northern Hot Springs onto Central Avenue.

The sky was bright blue, and Bathhouse Row looked terrific in the late afternoon sunshine. We parked on Central, and walked across to the Visitors Center, housed in the Fordyce Bathhouse. Its builder—Samuel Fordyce—had done business here for decades, and aimed for his 1915 project to be the grandest bathhouse ever. When concern for saving Bathhouse Row arose in the 1970s, the Fordyce was especially targeted for preservation (and opened as the Visitor Center in 1988). A ranger behind the old registration desk greeted us with brochures for the self-guided tour of this three-story complex.

This is still an amazing place. Equal parts hotel, bath center, rehabilitation center, and resort, there was nothing a visitor of the 1940s couldn’t find here. Gymnasium, sunbathing on the roof, the latest equipment for health and fitness: all were available here. Facilities for men and women were separate, with the space and quality of the womens' side of the building lagging behind. But every piece of the Fordyce looks as though it could return to service within hours, with the waters flowing again. Seventy-plus changing rooms indicate how busy it was in the 1940s; the 60-square-foot, twin-bed rooms indicate how guest expectations have increased.

The emphasis then was on the common areas—the lobby with grand piano, the "men’s lounge" with pool table, the gymnasium. Guests came for 6, 12, 18 or more baths, relaxing afterward with their own party or with others. As the peak period came and went, the Fordyce added complex and sometimes ground-breaking equipment, including the Czech exercise machines that first incarnated the principles of the equipment in today’s gyms.

You can’t understand Hot Springs without visiting this place. It takes no more than an hour to tour it well, but allow time for the movies in the visitor center: one on the area’s history, and another on what "taking the baths" was like. If you’re inspired to try a bath yourself, head down the street to the Buckstaff, or to one of the hotels slightly off the Row that offer baths.

After the visitor center, we headed out to the rest of the park. My youngest daughter was equipped with her junior ranger guide, which asked her to identify architectural features from each bathhouse. We didn’t need an excuse to stroll down Central Avenue, but we had one. There’s a variety of styles here, from vaguely Arabian to classical Roman. The exteriors are still in good shape, and Central is a great tree-lined street to walk.

After a little shopping at the variety of stores across the street, we returned to the park. Starting at the north end of Bathhouse Row, three of us took the Peak Trail to the top of Hot Springs Mountain. It was a little over a half-mile, and fairly steep in places. (You can also drive to the top of this modest 1100-foot mountain, but we felt better having done it the old-fashioned way.) There’s not a lot of elevation gain, but you still get a nice vista out into the surrounding area. At about an hour before sunset on a clear spring day, it was especially pretty.

You’re never far away from civilization on this mountain. Trails and roads criss-cross the mountain and each other. In fact, the whole face of the mountain has been remade: the surface was originally bare tufa (the solidified residue from the spring water). The hillside was thoroughly covered with dirt, shrubs and trees in the 1800s, resulting in today’s apparently natural, wooded appearance. Nonetheless, the hillside is a nice place to hike. We were alone on the trails, and in late afternoon, the parking areas at the top were also mostly empty.

We stopped in at the lobby/gift shop of Observation Tower ($6 for adults for a ride to the top) at the relatively broad, flat summit and then headed down. We took the Shortcut Trail to the Dead Chief Trail: a really steep descent that lands you at the south end of Bathhouse Row. Behind the bathhouses is the Grand Promenade, a broad, tiled walkway along the foot of the mountain, which is worth strolling. The locked green boxes that dot the nearby landscape are the springs, covered to prevent contamination. A few years ago, one was more or less re-excavated to provide an idea of what these natural sources were like. This isn’t like the hot springs in Banff or other places, where the spring pools—or man-made constructions for their output—hold bathers under the sunny skies. Nearly all the waters are piped into the houses below the slope, and have been for decades.

With the sun setting, we returned to our car, and started looking for somewhere to eat. We planned to return briefly in the morning, perhaps to hike, drive to the top of West Mountain, or explore Gulpha Gorge. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy, and after a brief stop at the Visitor Center to induct Hot Springs’ newest Junior Ranger, we headed northeast to Little Rock.

A great deal of the new construction in Hot Springs isn’t terribly close to anything but the freeway. Most of the chains (both lodging and dining) have located their newer additions to the area six miles from Bathhouse Row, south of US 270 and near the Hot Springs Mall. It’s easily reached by freeway (I-30 to US 270), but not that convenient to anything else (Oaklawn is about halfway along your journey into town).

We arrived at about 9pm, after finishing dinner and driving out from the center of town. Evidently, it was a busy night—I watched them turn one would-be guest away, and we found a message on our home phone asking if we were indeed planning to stay that night. We ended up in a first floor room not far from the desk, but it proved to be very quiet.

The room was pretty small, with two double beds. No rollaway was available, but one kid happily volunteered to sleep on the floor. That pretty much did it for open floor space: honestly, I don’t know where we would have put a rollaway if they’d had one. The furnishings were in good shape, and the beds were very comfortable. The bathroom was, thankfully, one of the larger ones you’ll find in a Hampton, with a full tub, and sink/counter that ran the length of the 8-foot bathroom (although some of that space would have been a welcome addition to the main room).

Their new On The House breakfasts work well for our family of five, especially as our kids reach ravenous teenager status. I believe that between us we can speak to the quality of every available item: scrambled eggs, the same with cheese and ham, bacon, pastries, etc.

This was a functional place to stay. If you’re just spending the night, it’s OK. The outdoor pool was open, but a little cool (and with the air in high 40ºs, we did no swimming). Each of the desk clerks was helpful and friendly, particularly the one who quickly fetched the extra linens for the fifth floor-bed herself.

I’d like to return to Hot Springs, but I’ll try to stay closer to the city center and the park. If that fails, I’d come back here.

From Central Hot Springs, just follow Central Avenue south past Oaklawn. If you come in on West US 270, get off at Highway 7. The hotel is off to the right, a little ways from the highway. If you hit the mall, you've gone too far.

Arkansas clearly remembers and celebrates native son Bill Clinton. Hot Springs notes its role as "President Bill Clinton’s boyhood home," but that’s nothing compared to Little Rock. Clinton served six 2-year terms as governor here, starting at the young age of 32, and honed his considerable political skills throughout this small state.

The Old State House (scene of the memorable 1992 election night celebration) and other Little Rock places contain exhibits, videos, banners, posters or other acknowledgements of the 42nd president. But the centerpiece of all this remembrance is the recently finished Clinton Presidential Center, in the River Market district just east of central downtown and right off I-30. Located on a large, riverside property cleared of abandoned warehouses, the complex contains the Museum itself, the archives of Clinton’s presidential papers, and (in a restored 1899 brick-red train station), the Clinton School of Public Service of the University of Arkansas. All these are centered in a large park, with green expanse to either side of the museum, filled with newly planted trees that will in time make this a great place to walk.

The Museum is a three-story, modern metal and glass rectangle. The northern end is cantilevered out towards the Arkansas River, a suggestion of the "Bridge to the 21st Century" theme of the second campaign and presidency. The building won the Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects, and it is indeed impressive. A green building with LEED Silver certification, reused, recycled and low-impact materials are used throughout (including bamboo and rubber for the floors, aluminum in the wall coverings).

We arrived after lunch. Despite the gray, drizzly weather, there was a sizable crowd. Entering on the first floor, we passed through the now ubiquitous metal detectors and purchased our tickets at the first floor desk. This level is mostly devoted to entry; the only exhibit is the Presidential Fleetwood Limousine with a small display on the history of presidential cars and the Secret Service. In the basement is Café 42, which closed by 3pm the day we were there.

The exhibits are on the second and third floors. Echoing the construction of the White House, each floor contains an oval room directly under (or over) the one on the neighboring level. On floor two, that space is a small auditorium where a short film on Clinton’s life and presidency—narrated by Clinton—shows all day. It’s introduced by one of the docents, who said, in his mild Arkansas drawl, "I guarantee, you’re gonna like it." We did.

We then spent the rest of our time in the exhibits. Just north of the theatre is a re-creation of the Cabinet Room. At the seat of each Cabinet member is an interactive video screen (used repeatedly, and to good effect, throughout the museum) that allows you to read about issues in each policy area and the process through which they were addressed. Running down the remainder of this floor is a long center display that moves linearly through the 8 years of Clinton’s presidency. On one side are events, issues and accomplishments for the year, augmented by more interactive displays. Filed in a series of notebooks at each station are the Presidential schedules for each day of that year, which are really interesting to page through. On the reverse of this display are interactive screens that access the same schedules, along with copies of letters from or to celebrities, heads of state, and others from the 8-year Presidency. Detailed exhibits on issues such as the economy, the Middle East, education, the environment and others flank this central row on both sides.

The third floor is more about the pomp and circumstance of the presidency and the stories of the Clintons themselves. The third floor oval is (like the Cabinet Room) an exact re-creation of the Clinton Oval Office. You can only look in from several openings, but screens at each one allow you to examine the history and origin of the objects within (or to take a guided tour of any White House room with Bill or Hillary). An exhibit on Clinton and music opened recently, highlighting music at the White House, music throughout his life, instruments given to him, etc., making it feel a little like a Hard Rock Café.

There’s too much here to take in during one visit. As interested as I was in this president, and in my first visit to a presidential library, I felt a little overwhelmed. If you’re coming for the first time, try to think of a time period or an issue that you’d like to learn more about. That would keep you from wandering aimlessly and feeling like you were never going to get the most out of your trip. Or maybe that’s just a risk for ‘completists’ like me.

The Museum is at 1200 President Clinton Avenue, just east of I-30, and is open 9-5 everyday but Sunday (1 pm to 5 pm). Parking is free; admission is $7 ($3 for kids). From I-30, take exit 141A (Markham St.). The Museum store is a few blocks west at 610 President Clinton Avenue; it’s just a short walk, but there's also a free shuttle. The store opens one hour after the Museum, and closes at 5:30 each day.

One of the most famous traditions in the American hotel business is now playing in Little Rock. In the late 1930s—so the story goes—the general and assistant managers of The Peabody in Memphis were returning home empty-handed from a duck hunting trip. Arriving late at night with the live ducks they’d (legally) used as decoys, it may have been the influence of some Tennessee whiskey that led to the brilliant idea of releasing the ducks in the hotel fountain. Wherever it came from, they thought differently in the morning, but found an adoring crowd already clustered around the hotel’s new residents.

Seventy years later, the ducks (or their descendants) remain, and have become synonymous with the Peabody. And when the Peabody acquired the former Excelsior Hotel in central Little Rock, part of the renovation included the addition of a marble fountain and family of ducks.

Knowing a good thing when he saw it, that Memphis manager built a ceremony out of what began as a questionable idea. As in Memphis, the Duckmaster—attired in red serge and gold braid—begins the show each morning at 11, telling the story of the ducks and recruiting a crew of junior duckmasters from the crowd to assist (my 11 through 15-year-olds were ready to volunteer, but realized he was looking for a younger crowd). After finishing the presentation and its oratorical flourishes, the Duckmaster departed via glass elevator for the 2nd floor (reserved from 10:30am on for the ducks). The ducks evidently rush on, their heads turning quickly as they surveyed the crowd through the glass wall. Once at ground level, they quickly proceeded down their red-carpteted path, up the stairs, and into the pond, where the Duckmaster had already placed two large piles of food that evidently met with their approval. At 5pm, the whole procession happens in reverse, with the ducks retiring to their quarters.

It was a cold March morning when we were there, but plenty of people (mostly, but not all, with younger kids) were there for the march of the ducks. Like us, most weren’t staying at the hotel, but had come over for the show anyways. My teens and near-teens insisted that we put this on our Little Rock itinerary, and it was a fun 15 minutes. We arrived about 15 minutes early, which wasn’t necessary (except for building anticipation)—there’s a lot of open space around the fountains from which to get a good view. If this isn’t quite enough to bring you downtown, stop at the Old State House right next door, which is a terrific building and museum of Arkansas’ history.

This hotel is across the river from central Little Rock, but still awfully convenient. It’s no more than 8 or 10 minutes from the Clinton Presidential Library, and about a half-mile from the first I-40 exit after the intersection with I-30. There’s some road construction that’s complicating things slightly, but didn’t really handicap us. There weren't a lot of dining options nearby, but we headed east on I-40 and then north on US 67 to East McCain St., chock-a-block with chain options. You can also get back to the River Market area in Little Rock so easily that it shouldn’t really matter.

Having stayed at a number of Hampton Inn properties in the last year, I’ve noticed a number of different designs, presumably of different ages. Some have relatively small rooms, with double (not queen) beds, and a bathroom more or less built into a tight corner. This property in North Little Rock is from that era. The chain-wide renovation has made it to this site, too; evidently in 2005. For what it's worth, I like the new, more modern look, and the Cloud Nine beds are indeed pretty comfortable. It seems like a good indication that the rooms are small when you see ‘two double beds’ listed as you search for availability. After noticing that, we requested a double adjoining a king, and gave the kids (and parents) their own room to wrap up our short trip.

If you don’t need the two beds, get a king. That uses the smaller room space very nicely, with the other bed replaced by a sleeper sofa. Such a room was fine for the two of us, although the sofa doesn’t line up well with the TV, which is closer to the bed. Oh well, had to watch the NCAA tournament from a reclining position. Of course, there’s coffee in the room, and wireless Internet throughout the hotel.

The new breakfast is a nice improvement on the long-standing Hampton continental offering. This morning, the hot option was sausage patties, egg patties, and biscuits. You can always find cut and whole fruit, pastries and muffins, cereal, three different kinds of coffee, yogurt, and (instant) oatmeal. A full breakfast like this is a great add-on for a family of five. And every Hampton breakfast lady I’ve met has been exceedingly friendly, helpful, and gracious. Actually, that goes for the rest of the staff, too—I called the hotel directly the night before we arrived to expand our reservation from one room to two, and the clerk was wonderful in running down two adjacent rooms that met our request. For $70/night per room, this was a pretty good place to stay.

Ending hunger,
Caring for the Earth
Heifer International Project is a terrific organization that focuses on helping families by providing long-term resources rather than short-term aid. Heifer helps people where they live, with livestock, animals, and training for long-term support, and asking those who’ve been helped to "pass on the gift" to others when their animals give birth. Over the last six decades, Heifer has changed the lives of over four million people all over the world.

Our family has been a supporter for 6 years now. Their new headquarters are in a beautiful green (that is, LEED-certified) building in central Little Rock, but the Heifer Ranch near Perryville is as good a place as any to learn about how they operate (and more fun besides).

It’s about a 40-mile drive from downtown Little Rock. Most of it is along Highway 10 after leaving I-430, a pretty trip through the forest near Pinnacle Mountain and Lake Maumelle. The 2-mile² ranch used to be a main center for raising and then shipping heifers overseas to raise the living standards of families in need. That idea came from the mind of Dan West, who (as I learned from quickly perusing a biography in the bookstore) was a provocative and sometimes challenging mixture of equal parts dreamer and doer. While passing out milk for Brethren World Service (an outreach effort of the church of the same name), he realized that these children needed cows, not milk. In 1944, Heifers for Relief sent its first animals to Puerto Rico. Many shipments to post-war Europe followed, and soon the Heifer Project was conducting similar efforts all over the globe.

This ranch was the starting point. Until the early 1980s, animals left here for families all over the globe. At that point, Heifer realized that it was both more efficient and more effective to purchase animals closer to their final destination.

The ranch lives on as a learning center, staffed by long-term volunteers who give tours, explain Heifer’s approach, and share their passion for this work. Many of the programs in place around the world are demonstrated here, from organic farming to animal husbandry to low-cost, high-quality housing construction.

This is a great place for people of all ages. We started in the small home that houses the visitors center. We watched an introductory video, which showed how
Beatrice Biira, a 9-year-old Ugandan girl, was able to start school in 1991 when a Heifer goat allowed her family to sell the milk and send the children to school. Beatrice is now 20, attending college in the U.S., and preparing to return to her country to continue helping her neighbors.

Our host—a woman from southwestern Minnesota, who comes down with her husband twice a year to work here for 3 months—then toured us around the Ranch on a 30-minute hayride, explaining how each part of the farm exhibited Heifer’s work around the world. We saw several dozen women from all over the country there for "Lambing Weekend", helping with the new sheep and goats (our timing was great!). Our trailer full of kids (and adults) loved the animals, which range from chicken, ducks, goats, rabbits and sheep to camels and water buffalo. But the older kids and adults (in addition to enjoying the animals) found a lot to learn. The Heifer Global Village, laid out around a modest-sized pond, showed how people in Zambia, Guatemala, and other countries may live.

We finished with a half-hour in the gift store, which features crafts and foods from around the world, purchased from their makers at fair trade prices. This visit was a terrific way to finish our short spring trip. My kids are dying to come back and help make a difference by working here. You can’t ask for more out of a vacation.

To learn more about Heifer, visit their website. It includes directions to the Heifer Ranch, which (as their site notes) should be relied upon instead of using some on-line map services. The best advice is: look for the signs. It’s pretty easy to find (the signs are large).