Sometimes travels to new places don’t take you very far from home. That was the case last week when I visited the Museum of Native American Artifacts in Bentonville, AR. The museum is located at 202 SW “O” Street in Bentonville and is open from 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Saturday. Admission is free.
Bentonville shares a border with Bella Vista, AR where I live and I traveled less than 10 miles for this visit.
The museum has one of the best collections of pre-Columbian artifacts found in the United States and includes a smaller collection from more recent times. The artifacts range from the Paleo Period (12,000 years to 8000 years ago) through the Historic Period (1650 AD to 1900 AD).
The museum itself has an interesting history. The people who were here when the Europeans came to America intrigued David Bogle and he started collecting artifacts depicting their history. As his collection grew he moved it from his home to a small building and opened the collection for viewing on a limited basis. Recently he purchased a larger building and opened the Museum on a full time basis. As well as unique items from his collection there are items on loan from individuals and universities. The Museum is the only place where many artifacts from these early time periods are on display for the public.
I was very impressed with the displays and layout of the Museum. The displays are in chronological order traveling from Paleo, to Archaic, to Woodland, to Mississippian and finally to Historic. There is a free audio tour with 63 stops provided. On many of the stops there is the option of pressing # to learn more about that particular time.
If you are ever in Northwest Arkansas a stop at the Museum of Native American Artifacts is very worthwhile. For more information visit the Museum web site at http://www.museumofnativeamericanartifacts.org/index.html.
I borrowed the image at the top of the page from the Museum web site.
