Tourism and Recreation in the Ozarks Panel Discussion, July 8, 2023

welcome to the 2023 Smithsonian folk Life Festival for over 50 years the festival has convened people on the National Mall to explore exchange and engage the power of culture and creativity in our lives today this year our two programs are the Ozarks faces and facets of a region and creative encounters living religions in the US add your Festival stories to our social media with the hash 2023 folk life the Smithsonian folk Life Festival is produced by the center for folk life and cultural heritage and presented in partnership with the National Park Service this Festival is made possible by people like you so visit festival. si.edu to join our community of contributors who also receive federally appropriated funds Smithsonian trust funds contribution from governments businesses foundations and individuals in kind assistance and food recording and craft sales the festival strives to maintain an accessible inclusive environment for visitors of all abilities if you in need of accessible seating options or assistance lisening during this presentation please see our venue manager volunteers wearing the ask me button for assistance the smithonian has done a wonderful job of bringing the Ozarks out here to the National Mall in Washington DC and we couldn't do it without the help of our sponsors and I'd like to recognize them now the Ozarks program is produced in partnership with Missouri State University the program is supported in part by Missouri State University Missouri division of Tourism Arkansas tourism University of Arkansas experiened fville The Windgate Foundation the committee of 100 for the Ozark Folk Center Ozark beard company Crystal Bridges arts and social impact accelerator partnership and the Missouri folk arts program the program receiv received Federal support from Latino initiatives pool administered by the national museum of the American Latino the asian-pacific ini American initiatives pool administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian American women's history initiatives pool in kind support comes from Montana cans and Mountain Valley Spring water so uh my name is Curtis copelan and I'll be presenting today about uh tourism and recreation in the Ozarks um I'm with an organization called The Society of ozarkian Hill crofters and today we have a couple guys from the mountain bike uh community in the Ozarks and also um Anthony and Rebecca they're from the current river area and they'll talk about the river culture uh in in the Ozarks so let me tell you a little bit about these folks here on my right is Seth Gable he's a mountain bike trail Builder located in St Louis Missouri he first got hooked on mountain biking in high school and and has continued his passion through his company backyard Trail builds his knowledge of local geography and forests allows him to seamlessly incorporate his Trails into the natural environment through his company and his YouTube channel he shares his love of mountain biking and creative Trail building with the world to the right of Seth is Dave Schulz he's also a mountain bike trail Builder also based in St Lou Le he co-found founded a nonprofit group known as GC or gork gravity that transforms undeveloped Hills and form mining towns into mountain biking trails together Dave and Seth and their teams look for ways to interconnect bike parks Trail systems helping turn the Ozarks into a mountain biking destination Anthony to the right of Dave is uh Anthony Martin is a gig maker from Ripley County Missouri Anthony Shannon County Shannon County that's right by this time in the festival I should have that memorized that'll teach me to read so much I knew that sorry about that Anthony it's all right Shannon County which has a beautiful current river running right through it U but Anthony's the recipient of the Missouri traditional Arts apprenticeship award and studies gig making under master gig maker Ray Joe Smith Hastings yes a former student of Anthony's Grand grandfather Paul Martin whose gigs were renowned throughout the Ozarks and also is uh to the right of Anthony is Rebecca Martin is's also from the same area uh she assists uh Anthony in in the gig making process gigs are a fishing Tool uh used to gig for suckers and other kind of fish in the current river so today let's start with Seth and Dave let's talk a little bit about uh the emerging tourism industry for the mountain biking that's uh that's i' would say in the last 10 15 years it's really started to take off so I don't think we can speak about this especially from the Ozarks without initially mentioning without initially mentioning the uh Walton Foundation and all that they've done for the northern Arkansas Area they basically made the standard uh they changed the world of mountain biking uh invested great in their communities and I believe the number was last time I saw was somewhere around like 70 million they invested in their communities with the mountain biking or bicycling focused infrastructure and Trail systems and the return on it so far has been about 159 million when measured in tourism they have really awesome medical studies that show the benefits for what few injuries come out of that uh change uh the benefits over things like heart conditions and similar stuff have reduced so much over the last you know 10 plus years for their study um what we did in Missouri we adapted a piece of that and they helped actually guide us a little bit and we came over and applied a new process to our state to bring our version of that while they operate with a large budget we operated with a z budget but through time uh building on the shoulders of we have a 23-year-old nonprofit which he named was uh gorg uh gorg gravity is about three three and a half years old now uh a branch of that nonprofit We Do coaching for communities and through that coaching process we've helped uh communities develop about 7 million in Parks we look for environmentally Disturbed areas and something that something else like surface mines Old Logging areas and we turned them into Community parks with a tourism element and that brings Seth in where we layered on top I did want to mention one other element though is that prior to us attacking it from that side uh the O'Reilly family also made their Mark with two rivers uh between Springfield and Branson area in an area called and that was one of the first updated Trail systems to exist as well through the O'Reilly Auto Parts family uh but that leads me to Seth who builds this extra flare brings that Ozark art to life that we can actually ride and touch and it becomes tangible yeah I built the thing back there that we do the demonstrations on we ride that you know four times a day here um I built stuff like that all throughout the Ozarks now because of the example that Bentonville set in Arkansas um it's just it's like they invested all this money and they got this huge return and all these other communities throughout the Ozarks saw their example saw what it could do for a community in these super small towns they're now getting these bike parks cuz they know it's going to you know increase health in the community increase the economy it gets tourism around I have a YouTube channel where you know even if I build one of these little features throughout their trail system I can get hundreds of thousands of views and eyeballs on it and people will come from you know we've heard far as Alaska just to come to small town just to see it so yeah it's really taken over the Ozarks and it's done just really good for the whole Community there for Anthony and Rebecca uh so over in Southeast Missouri the southeast Missouri Ozarks we've got the current river the Jack fork and um just a beautiful part of the country uh but the river tourism and Recreation is is a big deal there can you describe to our audience a little bit about uh you know the outdoor activities and tourism related to the River Country over in Southeast Missouri Shannon County so the waters that we have are pretty Crystal Clear they are fantastic to go just regular swimming fishing and floating we have a lot of floaters on our Rivers um you've got floats that can be 1 to two hours long you can do floats that are 8 to 9 hours long or you can do like a 2 three day float and just Camp along the Gravel Bar I mean it's just a beautiful area you've got Bluffs up on one side or the other and you've seen some Wildlife uh my husband went on a float and they actually got to see uh a bald eagle come flying down just above them I mean it's just a beautiful area I I can't get enough of it they're never going to let me out of the state again because I keep talking about it so much it's it's pretty impressive so we're we're part of the ozar national Scenic riverways in our area and as Curtis mentioned we've got the Ozark U the current river jackfork river we've also got the 11p point the marac things like that um and you know at any given time through the summer you're going to see a few hundred people per day floating these Rivers we've we've had people come as far as uh northern northern parts of New York Canada Europe um just to float our rivers and we also have um the trail rides in Eminence which is a really big thing for us we've we've got people that come from all over the country you know to ride our trails and you know a lot of our Trails will take you right along Jack Fork River or Current River one of the two um and so it just it really it really does broaden the perspective whenever you you take a step back and can look at okay these tiny little towns of 600 700 people are seeing an influx of two to 3,000 people in a week or you know On Any Given weekend it might be four or 5,000 people Anthony and Rebecca you talk about floating so uh obviously that probably includes fishing as well but a number of different activities on the water related to floating so what kind of what kind of craft do they have different kind of boats might you find if if you were visiting those arcs so typically I mean you're going to find us running a lot of flat bottom boats up there to do our fishing on in the rivers and stuff um but when you come down and you go floating people will float at anything from a tube to a canoe to kayaks uh We've definitely in the last six or eight years seen a really really large rise in the number of kayakers that come down our Rivers U people will put in as far up as they can go and then you know we we've we've had people turn a float into a weekl long float so I've done that it's pretty impressive gets pretty grueling at times I I can attest too from the mountain viiking side that we've tied all of our stuff into the floating communities but even myself I had to before even come in here I floated depending on your pronunciation right the curo a kurur away just before coming in which which is part of that system I lived on the current I grew up on the current so okay that's awesome yeah so so do these these folks have to uh bring their own canoes and kayaks or are there Outfitters on the current Jack's Fork there are there are plenty of Outfitters I mean up and down jackfork river and Cent River both there's anywhere from three to six canoe rental areas I mean within a 15 20 mile radius um just about anywhere you look and you can rent anything from a kayak to a tube you know they'll they'll set you up um right there in Eminence we've got Wendy's canoe rental and then next to Alli Springs we've got Harvey's and I'd say those are the two biggest uh canoe rental locations in our area um you go down to vanur and you've got the Big Springs canoe rental um they're probably the second largest in our area uh so they they will they will handle anywhere from 300 people up to 12200 people in a day's time I like uh Hiers Fair a lot as well ACR fair is a good one yeah they're pretty good size yep we actually floated from uh Acres Ferry down to was it pole tide this past year so yeah that's super cool one of my favorite floats I wish they still had the ferry open yeah Dave and Seth so I know you all are also mountain bike enthusiast and travel around there's a couple uh there's several tourist towns and uh in the Ozarks that have traditionally been tourist destinations for a variety of reasons one that comes to mind that uh that makes me think of mountain biking uh which which in the past would not is uh Eureka Springs Arkansas and back in the 1880s it became a tourist destination for its healing Springs during that phenomenon of spring waters having healing properties and and uh it continues today not so much for that purpose but uh up up through up through the 1990s and 2000s just a a really diverse Community with and and a lot of Arts crafts and so forth along with the history but in recent years there's a a downhill uh I believe a downhill mountain bike track there if you guys tried that I haven't been present for its initial Inception and construction uh I almost moved there just loving that place so much before we started our help on the Missouri side uh it was amazing to watch that that change occur there but the the downhill Park set a standard there it's a shuttle based uh so basically you ride from the top and it's gravity Fed so you use gravity Propel your bikes down and then you ride a bus tram system back to the top uh extremely fun very very popular all different levels of Trail but of course all the way up to top expert things that a lot of people will take pause at and look at uh for sure but that that Community is really neat it's sort of if you're familiar with like the super steep hills of San Francisco the town is sort of built into the hillside in a similar fashion but really eccentric really unique there's a a big train history there actually um and the town is elevated so there's a town under the town that's hidden it it you can see through the sewer grates of the old old areas that were elevated like 15 ft in the air because of the mud and flooding but it's got a huge history of the healing stuff that he mentioned with u there's all of these uh cave systems and natural springs and so historically people would come in there there was Healing Centers created actually and a lot of them you know over time as we discover what they really were doing it got a little crazy but uh there's there's a really neat history there combined with the mountain biking and actually it's a motorcycle town as a matter of fact because of the twisty roads that's a big part of it as well yeah it's got a lot of I think there's like ghost tours of like the town I think correct me if I'm wrong but the town supposedly it the city fell into the ground and then they just built on top of it in a sense something like that there's a lot um but yeah it's really integrated as mountain bikers we go out there to ride this downhill Park and then we'll spend days in the town just exploring all the stuff it has at all one of the restaurants is in a cave I mean me I can't you can't beat that that' be awesome yeah even if you're not into mountain biking itself you just want a neat place to explore bed and breakfast kind of environment it's absolutely worth it and I don't want to get too much detail CU it's kind of gory but there is a huge gory history for their major Hotel it's up on the mountain you can take the tours and you can go and yeah there was uh they had claimed healing capabilities for especially for anything really but especially for cancer patients and none of it was true and and it it fraudulently went on for a long time and I believe it was actually an Inception of the FBI when when they were created I believe they intervened in that place so kind of a weird history and Dave uh eure the Eureka Springs bike downhill that has drawn a whole other group of visitors now and potential tourists right with uh some major competitions is that is that correct yeah yeah there's top top level events have happened there things that would have never been able to do occur otherwise and one to give you an idea of the impact that it has I think one of the most noticeable things that's a seasonal town that seasonal Town once that mountain biking element started became an all year around town I watched restaurants progressively go from open a little longer through the day to open a few more months to open all year to their schedules adjusted based on that additional level of Tourism and uh there's actually some big religious centers there as well and they file for bankruptcy actually actually uh and they took note of what was going on and through that process they invited the mountain bikers into their community in their space and they develop they're surrounding their grounds with mountain biking trails and because of that they're still there so it appears to have reversed their process as well and helped them from a tourism draw standpoint Anthony and Rebecca how how important is the river tourism to uh your communities Southeast Missouri I mean uh I I know that of of all the Ozarks the southeast Missouri Ozarks is one of the most rural areas and so you you talk about these large events like the Eminence trail ride um and uh obviously during the summer months the the float the the canoe float trips and so forth uh is that a substantial part of the the uh way of life and the the economic of of your area the tourism yeah there's a big flux through the summer but our winter months not so much there's it's too cold um when he's been out on the waters gigging at night it's gotten cold enough that his hands have actually froze to the pole and there's just not as many people over the winter months so Eminence that has the trail rides they actually are pretty well dead over the winter months so the summer is a huge thing for our community it yeah it brings in a a lot a lot of economic influx it's amazing uh I would say tourism probably accounts for about 50% of our income in that area through the summer so we we had in Steelville that was their PR you know about yeah that's like a huge float town and they had that same thing where half the year they're open tons of Tourism millions of dollars in revenue from it and then winter months nothing it's dead uh but yeah put a mountain Mike Trail in and then it kind of balances that out a little bit so there's there's recently there's been a uh an ATV Ranch go in off of 106 over there in in and there's been some talk of trying to get some somebody down and put a mountain bike trail in in that ranch but I don't know if it's went any farther so I need a card before we this guy yeah I I need a card before we leave out happy to help help you help awesome Seth I was noticing your shirt you're wearing a house bike park uh shirt today and one thing about the mountain biking phen I I'll call it a phenomenon I hope that's okay but uh it is really changing the face of tourism in a lot of communities now howler is uh within just a few minutes Drive of Branson Missouri which has long been known for amusement parks and live music and so forth but now we have uh howler bike park just north of town and and I live live in Ozark and but work in Branson so I do a lot of commuting I drive right by howler and I know that they're not even the park is not even fully complete and that their parking lot is always packed so can you tell us a little bit about howler and how that's changing the the tourism in that area yeah so we talked about Eureka Springs Eureka Springs is about an hour south of U Branson so howler has you know it's drawing this huge crowd there's also bville that's in Arkansas e Springs is in Arkansas and Hower is like this little Beacon just above there drawing people into Missouri uh who were already mountain biking down in Arkansas but it's completely you know it's it's morphing that area in the same way that Bentonville did of like setting this example that this is something that people want and now you know Springfield wants to do more stuff like that which is north of it and then Branson is trying to totally convert their image into like an outdoor uh Adventure Town versus what it used to be which was you know this kind of entertainment place to go to uh that is slowly well I want to say it's been going downhill but I think they still make plenty of Revenue there from it but again howler is kind of just setting this example of like you you probably want this thing too alongside it so so Dave let me direct this question to you um what do you think was that turning point cuz uh you know being in the Ozarks the Ozarks lends itself to mountain biking it's got steep terrain uh beautiful Outdoors uh uh just a great place for any kind of outdoor activity regarding Trails be it hiking uh mountain biking or otherwise and and I I've had friends over the years that would go out into the mark TW national forest and and ride the old uh logging roads or fire roads and uh even uh even some folks that were skilled enough and brave enough to take on some of the off-road vehicle locations that have been around since the 70s like Chadwick off-road use Park and so forth what do you think was that turning point to where it went from kind of a special uh kind of a unique special Enthusiast mountain bike Enthusiast activity to something that's mainstream well it's kind of a big question in a sense because there's uh it was timing I would say is more than anything so you have again Arkansas doing what they did to make that impact but they couldn't have done that necessarily without also the technological advancements in cycling so cycling had Leaps and Bounds advanced in the last even 5 years now uh it the technology advancements allowed a lot of people who maybe have less skill to ride more challenging areas and so it brought more people in to the environment and then you have people like Seth who throw it on YouTube and that popularity you know millions and millions of people seeing this are like I want to be a part of this thing and so you layer those all together Missouri in particular I would argue we had a lot of great cross country systems all over but we were missing that flare element that that feature Rich As we call it trail system and that challenge I realized was just simply information so the governments they could see things happening but they didn't they weren't part of the cycling Community they didn't quite understand what was occurring and in order to translate that they needed somebody to speak to them and so that's kind of the role that we all fell into where we're able to use our government background and combine that with our cycling uh and backgrounds and help them to build these parks and to open that gate but again timing of all those things had to happen for this to become so great and honestly it it's a complement to things like the people I'm sitting next to with the Water Systems every every place that we built like they have some connection to the water in Missouri and that's that's a big element of it and our caves which we haven't mentioned are also a big piece of that oh my gosh yeah Dave you talk about that that inter that relationship between the the mountain biking and the floating and even the hiking community and and and and Dave you may be familiar with this or or or Anthony or Rebecca but I remember when I was I went to visit uh Current River around the the round spring area and uh the Park Service there had a it was kind of a CH it was a challenge and you could receive a patch or something if you're a visitor but it was uh it was a loop it included mountain biking hiking and kayaking or canoeing a section of the river have yall have yall seen that I actually hadn't heard anything about that yeah yeah I'm not aware of the patch that sounds pretty interesting though yeah and so that's one of what I'm getting at is the Ozarks is a a really neat place to be able to go there and enjoy a bunch of different outdoor activities in one location um uh Anthony uh M now you you're here at the festival mainly with your uh with your skills as a Craftsman with a gig making um in Southwest Missouri Ozarks we have the huge Lakes like Table Rock bull Sholes Beaver Lake and so forth yeah and traditional what what I call traditional fishing with a bass boat or a or even a a John boat on the lake is is is popular is traditional fishing still popular on the current river oh yeah um or more so than Gig fishing um I'm not sure if it's more so I'd say they're pretty well equal they uh current river does hold U bass fishing tournaments every year uh two or three times a year so down around the vanan area and down towards Donathan and stuff like that um but yeah traditional fishing is still really popular you know they're a lot of people that'll actually come from the southern part of Missouri up into like I'm talking down around the Arkansas line up into our neck of the woods round Springs um Two Rivers you know places like that and and they'll they'll Smallmouth fish year round and then we've got a lot of trout fishermen that come up too up around Monto area you know Monto is um it's it's the state trout hatchery pretty much so yeah I'd say traditional fishing is still pretty big um Dave how about the the you know the local tourism boosters I guess if you would call it the Chambers of Commerce and so forth are they starting to uh to Market mountain biking more than they used to outdoor activities more uh than in the past as far as you know come to the Ozarks or come to Missouri or come to Arkansas uh are you starting to see more uh talk about mountain biking or ech EC tourism types of things yeah very much so so the South Side from us Arkansas they have immense advertising from Chamber of Commerce to professional organizations but on our side of Missouri was a lot more quiet uh in in that specific category uh but now it's greatly picked up Seth actually was just showing me a text that came through from one of our local magazines called terrain magazine they picked up the story from here that was written by people in Springfield Missouri so it kind of links all the way around and it and it's spreading uh we were invited out to the capital actually and got to stand in front of uh the House and Senate which was pretty pretty neat thing and the the tourism Chambers there took note and helped us and we got a lot of FaceTime and and then all the local chambers that are within each of these communities have also stepped up their game for this as well so yeah it's definitely growing and advertising awesome so uh this is kind of a question for across the panel here but uh you know uh traveling and and vacationing uh can get quite expensive uh so is uh whether it be river river outdoor recreation floating fishing so forth or mountain biking do you do you all feel like that is something that the majority of folks can do or is it or is it finan are there any Financial major Financial barriers with this this type of tourism activity um as far as like our River activities and stuff I think that's pretty affordable all the way across the board you know we uh we have a lot of local um Airbnb places and people will people will come in and snag those up and and stay in those for a couple days while they float the rivers I mean it's it's all really affordable I think in our area well that and the campgrounds are numerous and we'll even Camp right on the Gravel Bar so you buy a tent a couple of sleeping bags and pack a cooler and you can stay there for 2 three days and it might cost you 100 bucks for two three two three days to enjoy the outdoors to enjoy the the waters I mean you can swim all day long get good and sunburnt and you know just enjoy some fishing hiking you can see wild horses I mean you name it you can do it for about 100 bucks i' add in while um I'm all for uh privatization as well and and and all that like holler bike park for example uh just for our sake on the on the volunteer side all of our projects that we help with are free and open to the public on purpose there may be services that you can purchase there may be something you can participate in that cost money but the Park's open to the public like any other Park so you can go visit you can go if you can hike or walk or we actually we have uh three and four-wheel Trails so for quad bikes or uh Tri bikes we have the ability for those people that are we have like for example we have a few paralyzed Riders but they want access now they have trails that their bikes can Traverse and be still fun for two wheels and so pretty much we try to welcome everybody regardless of their affordability uh it's drawn in uh groups like uh boys and girls club took note of these parks and they came in and made a donation combining with another Bike company so they gave a whole Fleet of bikes to underprivileged children and the hospital took note and they provided all the helmets so again we try to make sure everybody can reach it and like they said you know you can find camping and sometimes inexpensively or or even free depending on where you go um you can definitely with a tight budget still enjoy these activities for sure yeah and if you don't have a bike most of these places have a bike shop that rents them out for 25 35 bucks rent for a whole day and they're like nice bikes yeah very good well is there anything that I may have overlooked that you that any of you would like to add about um you know the river tourism or mountain bike tourism in the Ozarks uh that I may have overlooked I could say I did want to mention ironon they seem to be the one of the epitome of it while Steelville and all these places are doing great things ironon sort of got forgotten a little bit because a lot of the parks that are nearby are just north of it so you come from our major area St Louis you visit the park I'm sure you guys experienced it you turn around you go back right so how do you get them to go that a little bit further and that's where this mountain bike park in the heart of ironon and heart of the what they call the Arcadia Valley which is a triy town area um that changed things and so we have right surrounding the town you have places we have what we call shuttin right so like Johnson shut-ins our river systems cut into the ground over what billions of years over yeah and and to the to to a normal person if you go look at it it doesn't look that way it actually looks like the Rocks jutted up through the rivers and so you can go visit these areas you can go floating in these same areas and then you can go hiking or mountain biking you can see if you like geology if you like history there's all the Civil War stuff and just the way it fell ironon happens to have all of that right there and accessible including they even have the whitewater rafting that happens on the St Francis River during the seasonal times so that's something else I forgot about yeah there's fullon like a big competition each year in White Water like kaying and like it's a huge thing and that's pretty close to iron I think it's it is yeah I mean it's what s you said San Francis river right yeah so it's not that far at all yeah yeah and I believe what else is near them is the Black River yeah Black River Big River yeah Big River so there's there's a lot of good stuff but I'm I'm a little biased I as these guys I think prefer uh the crystal clear waters that's my preference that's right I've not been proved wrong yet nobody has disagreed with me that has been on our Waters that has come through and listened they've all pretty well agreed that it's crystal clear waters yeah for sure so do you have any questions from the audience Tom yeah Tom Tom hello Tom uh so I've been wondering like what's up with Dog Patch and as I can tell it's going to be like another Dogwood Canyon Nature Park I guess Johnny's calling them I'm gu guessing that's kind of geared towards an older demographic I don't I've never been down there in a dogwood Canyon but I haven't either how do you you mean like the manufactured place so they kind of I think they like dug in the how was that you know about that place I I the name rings a bell but I'm not to it's like a man-made waterfall or something they like oh yeah yeah so that's is that the one where they can endlessly kayak is that that one or don't oh no this is a different one there so there's a excuse me uh I don't they're trying to design they they will do a man-made thing on the edge of a river like St Fran they haven't done this s Francis I'm aware of but like s Francis and they'll create the water environment necessary for the kayakers to just relive the same experience but now you're Dogwood is the was your question though and what you were asking more Dog Patch he bought that what two years ago yeah yeah Tom you know as as with Mo what I know about it which isn't much and usually with Johnny's projects they're they're under wraps until the last but to me if I was to to have a crystal ball or be able to make an educated guess because of its location nearby to the Buffalo River I mean it's just within a couple miles of the Buffalo and because of the terrain I would I would think that it would include maybe it might include some downhill but it's definitely would I would think that would Inc incorporate some River activities as well in the Buffalo but but uh what we do know it'll be it'll be well done there be a lot of money put into it for sure but but but Dog Patch used to be in the in the very very late 60s early 70s up to the early 1990s was uh an out an amusement park uh down in uh Newton County Arkansas along the Buffalo River that had a theme after Al Cap's little admer comic book series so that's all about Hillbillies and stuff like that so um but now the owner of Bass Pro has acquire Bass Pro Shops has acquired the property and turning in into more of an outdoor type of experience so good question Tom I don't think we'll know the answer till he opens the curtain on that project but that's good question anyone else well let's have Round of Applause for Seth and Dave and Anthony and Rebecca thank you all so much thanks

2024-11-06 02:02

Other news