Mississippi Delta, Arkansas

Follow the green-and-white pilot wheel markers along the Great River Road in the heart of eastern Arkansas's Mississippi River Delta country. The road, designated a national scenic byway, will lead you from north to south through this rich agricultural kingdom where cotton, rice, soybeans and wheat flourish in some of Arkansas's richest soils. Crowley's Ridge Parkway, another national scenic byway, also winds through this region, providing excellent views of the productive land from atop a geologic oddity rising from the Delta. This is the land where Europeans first crossed the Mississippi in 1541, where you can experience a taste of the civilizations they found here by visiting the Hampson Museum State Park at Wilson and at Parkin Archeological State Park at Parkin. You can relive the early days of more recent settlement at countless museums throughout the region, including the Arkansas State University Museum at Jonesboro and the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie at Stuttgart. Highpoints include the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum & Education Center at Piggott, where "Papa" penned portions of "A Farewell to Arms"; the historic riverport of Helena, where the Delta Cultural Center interprets the land, the people and the music of the river country; Arkansas Post National Memorial, which preserves the site of the earliest European settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley; Southland Greyhound Park, one of the largest dog tracks in the country; and Lake Chicot State Park, where fishing is exceptional and bird watching second to none. And don't miss the Louisiana Purchase State where a monument marks the initial point for surveys of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

Explore Mississippi Delta

Matilda and Karl Pfeiffer Museum

Museum and study center to provide educational and cultural experiences for school groups and the general public. Programs and experiences are focused on historic house and grounds, a world-class mineral collection, and a Native American artifact collection. Tour includes: - 1930'

Piggott, AR Museums

Central Delta Depot & Museum

Located in a beautifully restored 1912 Union Railroad Depot on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum contains exhibits focusing on the Louisiana Purchase survey of 1815 and on area railroads and other facets of local history. Serves as visitors'

Brinkley, AR Museums

Arkansas State University Museum

Directions: Located on the ASU campus Collection of history, natural history and American Indians; regional history museum; paleontology, native American, and "old town" Arkansas exhibits;

Jonesboro, AR Museums

Malco Theatre

Helena-West Helena, AR Theatres

Delta Heritage Tours

Cultural and musical tours of Mississippi River town feature an authentic gospel church service, a live performance of America's longest-running blues radio show and a visit to the Delta Cultural Center. Customized tours, with advance notice, can include historic homes, a visit to one of the Delta'

Helena-West Helena, AR Tours

Delta Cultural Center

Museum in restored depot and storefront tells the story of efforts to settle and cultivate the fertile Delta region along the Mississippi River. Interactive audio exhibits on the region'

Helena-West Helena, AR Museums

Great River Road National Scenic Byway

The Great River Road, Arkansas's portion of the Mississippi River Parkway, runs for 363 miles paralleling the Mississippi River in Eastern Arkansas. This scenic highway is composed of these highways: Ark. 82, U.S. 65, Ark. 4, Ark. 1, U.S. 165, Ark. 316, Ark. 318, Ark. 20, Ark. 44

Dewitt, AR Scenic Byways

Great River Road National Scenic Byway

McGehee, AR Scenic Byways

Patterson Branch Historical Marker

Directions: Two miles east of Marianna Site of where the first child of Anglo-Saxon parents was born west of the Mississippi in 1790

Marianna, AR Historic Markers

Craighead Forest Lake

Craighead Forest Lake is an 80-acre recreational impoundment located south of Jonesboro on Crowley's Ridge. The lake serves as the focal point of the area's largest city park, which offers fishing, hiking, playgrounds, swimming, camping, pavilions, marina and launch area.

Jonesboro, AR Recreation

Cache River National Wildlife Refuge

Small game, waterfowl and big game hunting; fishing, wildlife observation, photography. Habitat includes 33,000 acres of bottomland forest and associated sloughs and oxbow lakes, 4,300 acres of croplands and 7,500

Augusta, AR Wildlife Refuges

Confederate Cemetery

Historic cemetery lies on the upsurge of Crowley's Ridge at the northern edge of town. Burial place of Helena resident Gen. Patrick Cleburne, known as "the Stonewall Jackson of the West."

Helena-West Helena, AR Cemeteries