MOUNT MAGAZINE STATE PARK - Unless you are an avid lepidopterist or an Arkansas General Assembly buff, it may be news to you that our state has an official butterfly.
Six years ago, legislators voted to so designate the Diana fritillary, one of the most visually vivid of Arkansas’ 127 resident species of butterflies. The Diana fritillary male’s bright orange and brownish-black coloration contrasts with the iridescent black-with-blue of the larger female.
These fluttering beauties of nature will be in the spotlight Friday and Saturday at the 17th annual Mount Magazine International Butterfly Festival, held at the state park of that name and at Logan County Fairgrounds outside nearby Paris (where activities also go under the name Downtown Paris Festival).
“Fritillary,” in case you wondered, is derived from the Latin word “fritillus” - meaning “dice box” - and apparently refers to the spot patterns on the species’ wings. Diana was the Roman goddess of light and life, later also the goddess of the moon and hunting. (Anda lepidopterist is a scholar or hobbyist who catches, studies or observes butterflies. Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, was a devoted lepidopterist.)
The highest point in Arkansas at 2,749 feet, Mount Magazine has been a state park since the 1980s. It boasts 13 cabins and a rustically sleek 60-room lodge that opened in 2006, 35 years after its predecessor burned. Getting here from Little Rock involves a drive of a bit more than 100 miles on sometimes winding highways, making for a long but plausible day trip.
If butterflies fail to strike your fancy, some other time might be better to show up, given this weekend’s anticipated throngs. For the next several nights, the park’s lodgings figure to be full, as do accommodations in Paris. If you’re determined to make a butterfly weekend of it, a better bet for a room might be Russellville, some 30 miles to the east.
Friday’s festival activities on Mount Magazine include the “Power of Flowers” garden tour at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. from the visitor center; author Lori Spencer and photographer Don Simons’ “A Year of Butterflies” program at 2 p.m. in the visitor center; and “The Great Garden Challenge”session on identifying butterflies and moths at 2:30 p.m. in the lodge.
On Saturday, early risers can attend “Intro to Moths” at 7 a.m. in the visitor center;“Power of Flowers” will be repeated at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; so will “A Year of Butterflies” at 2 p.m. “An Ozark Journey for Kids” concert will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the lodge, followed at 7 p.m. by music from the group Still on the Hill.
Nature lessons are on the menu for the Bounty of Bees buffet, to be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the lodge’s Skycrest Restaurant ($12.95 for adults, $6.95 for kids 6 to 12). The buffet will feature foods that are produced with the help of bees, butterflies and other pollinators, with each dish labeled to identify the creature that pollinates it directly or indirectly.
At Logan County Fairgrounds just east of Paris, a potpourri of action from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday will include an art show and sale, a photo contest, craft and food vendors, camel rides and other children’s activities, and a live butterfly observatory.
Middle School Auditorium, 610 N. 10th St., Paris, will be the setting at 6 p.m. Friday for the Butterfly Miss Pageant. The pageant’s winners will release live butterflies at 9 a.m. Saturday at the fairgrounds.
The state park’s visitor center houses one gallery with a host of details on what one information panel calls an “Island in the Sky” - the nine distinct natural communities that make up Mount Magazine’s “ecological island.” Mounted specimens of the Diana fritillary and the park’s other butterfly species allow close-up study.
To steer clear of this weekend’s crowds, one path is Mount Magazine’s network of eight hiking trails, varying in length from nine-tenths of a mile to 9.5 miles. A trails brochure touts Signal Hill Trail, which climbs to the summit: “No visit to Mount Magazine is complete without having hiked to the high point. At the top is a stone map of Arkansas.”
The hike does involve an ascent of 153 feet, but your sweating may be eased by the fact that temperatures at the 2,749-foot elevation are often 10 to 15 degrees cooler than in the valley below.
For information on Mount Magazine State Park, call (479) 963-8502 or visit mountainstateparks.com. International Butterfly Festival information, including a full schedule, is also available from Paris Area Chamber of Commerce by calling (479) 963-2244 or visiting butterflyfestival.com. Festival activities are generally free of charge.
Weekend, Pages 40 on 06/20/2013