Visitors Guide to Attractions
in Craighead County, Arkansas
Jonesboro is the main community of Craighead County and is home to Arkansas State University. The university maintains both the Arkansas State University Museum and the Bradbury Gallery which are free and open to the public. On the southern edge of Jonesboro are Craighead Forest Park which features a fishing lake, camping facilities, hiking trails, bird watching opportunities, picnic sites, recreational fields, and ATV and mountain biking trails. The Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center is adjacent to the park and features three-story indoor facility, a 5.5-acre prairie, 2.5-acre pond, and approximately 100 acres in woodlands with 5 nature trails. North of Jonesboro is Lake Frierson State Park, which is best known for its wild dogwoods and a 335-acre fishing lake.
Arkansas State University Museum
Jonesboro, Arkansas
The Arkansas State University Museum began in 1936 with a single glass case of archeological artifacts. The museum now occupies 45,000 square feet in the west wing of the Dean B. Ellis Library. Browse. Visitors can explore and learn in the 25,000 square feet of permanent and temporary exhibitions about the natural and human achievements in northeast Arkansas and the Delta region.
Bradbury Art Museum
Jonesboro, Arkansas
The Bradbury Art Museum features changing exhibitions of contemporary art in all mediums. Regionally, nationally and internationally recognized artists are represented to inform viewers of cultural developments across the US and around the world. The Bradbury Art Museum is also the site of the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition. At the end of each spring and fall semester the gallery also features artwork by graduating seniors from the Arkansas State University Department of Art.
Craighead County Courthouse
The current Craighead County Courthouse was dedicated in1935 and is the only notable example of Art Deco construction in Jonesboro. Additions made in 1992 and 1995 applied ornamentation that reflect the 1934 design of the main courthouse building. Several monuments are situated on the current courthouse lawn. Predating the 1934 structure is an American Doughboy monument to World War I veterans at the northeast corner of Washington and Main Streets. This was the first World War I monument built in the south, and one of the first to be erected in America and was unveiled on Memorial Day in 1920.
Craighead Forest Park
Jonesboro, Arkansas
Craighead Forest Park comprises 692 acres in the scenic beauty of Crowley's Ridge and features a fishing lake, camping facilities, hiking trails, bird watching opportunities, picnic sites, recreational fields, and ATV and mountain biking trails.
Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center
Jonesboro, Arkansas
The Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center sits on a 160 acre and tells the story of the unique ridge that traverses the Arkansas segment of the Mississippi Delta with indoor and outdoor exhibits, films, and trails. A three-story indoor facility features education, exhibit and meeting space. The center adjoins the southern boundary of Craighead Forest Park and on its grounds visitors can find a 5.5-acre prairie, 2.5-acre pond, and approximately 100 acres in woodlands. There are 5 nature trails on the grounds. The Habitats Trail, about a quarter-mile long and handicapped accessible, circles the pond behind the nature center.
Lake Frierson State Park
Jonesboro, Arkansas
Atop the unique landform of rolling hills called Crowley's Ridge, Lake Frierson State Park is best known for its wild dogwoods and a 335-acre fishing lake known for its fishing. At this small park in northeast Arkansas, visitors can also enjoy a picnic area, a pavilion, rental boats, a barrier-free fishing pier, and camping. The park’s hiking trails offer excellent wildlife viewing opportunities. Each spring, the wild dogwoods throughout the park blossom and turn the landscape into a blaze of white.
St. Francis Sunken Lands Wildlife Management Area
Craighead, Poinsett & Greene Counties, Arkansas
The Sunken Lands WMA is an area in northeast Arkansas that was created by the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12. The area became nationally famous as a hunting and fishing area in the early 20th century. Some isolated stands of old growth bald cypress still exist on the area, and there are excellent opportunities for bird watching and wildlife viewing. The Payneway Moist Soil Unit is protected from hunting and hosts a variety of shorebirds, eagles and several duck species.
Nearby Attractions
Bootheel Missouri
The Missouri Bootheel is the southeastern most part of the state and is composed of the counties of Dunklin, New Madrid, and Pemiscot. Explore what the region once was like at the area’s many conservation areas. Learn the history of New Madrid, the great earthquakes of 1812-13, the role the town played in the Civil War, and the town’s history at several museums and historic sites in the town. Get a great view of the Mississippi from New Madrid’s riverfront. Other regional history can be found in museums in the towns of Kennett and Malden.
Northeast Arkansas along the Great River Road
Northeastern Arkansas along the Mississippi River offers its visitors a variety of attractions. The downtown districts of Blytheville and Osceola have distinctive architecture in their downtown districts. The small communities of Manila and Earle have county museums covering the history and culture of the region. At Sans Souci Landing visitors can get a great up close view of the Mississippi River. Nature lovers will find plenty to do at Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge.
Western Tennessee
The Western Tennessee counties of Lake, Obion, Dyer, Lauderdale, and Tipton offers it visitors a variety of historical, natural, and cultural activities. History can be found everywhere in Western Tennessee at such places as Fort Pillow State Historic Park, the Alex Haley Home and Interpretive Center, and many county museums. Nature can be explored at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee’s largest natural lake, and at Fort Pillow State Historic Park as well as the Tipton County Museum, Veterans Memorial & Nature Center. Unique architecture can be seen at the Tipton and Lauderdale County courthouses and their surrounding downtown districts and Confederate soldier monuments dot the landscape. Theater lovers will delight in the atmosphere of the Ruffin Theater in Covington.
For Travelers Heading Up the River
The Mississippi Meets the Ohio River Region
After the Mississippi River passes St. Louis it begins to change character. When the Mississippi River meets the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois it is halfway on its journey to the sea. It is here that the brown muddy water of the Mississippi begins to mingle with the clearer water of the Ohio. Without the locks and dams the Mississippi begins to wind and curve so much so that the distance by water from Cape Girardeau to the Gulf of Mexico is twice the distance as a crow flies. The region where the Mississippi River meets the Ohio River is an area of transition in several respects both in terms of the flora and fauna but the culture begins to take on that of the Deep South. The Meeting the Ohio region of the Middle Mississippi River Valley offers it visitors a wide variety of options of activities to do and sites to see. Whether you’re looking for historical or cultural sites or a place to enjoy nature you’ll find it in this part of the country.
