Arkansas State Parks unveiled plans Tuesday for a new visitor center at Pinnacle Mountain State Park.
An open house from 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at the West Summit Pavilion in the park's day-use area allowed parks directors, superintendents and staff members to chat with park patrons next to signboard images of the planned 13,756-square-foot facility.
Grady Spann, director of Arkansas State Parks, said the new building, designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, would occupy a new site on the western slope of Pinnacle Mountain off busy Arkansas 300.
Construction would begin this winter, Spann added.
"Our goal is to have this constructed by end of next year," he said, noting that the global pandemic could delay that goal. Bids have not been let, and contractors have not yet been hired.
The project would be paid for using revenue collected under Amendment 75, the existing ⅛-percent sales tax devoted to conservation.
The current visitor center has always been too far from the iconic mountain to serve as a reception and education center, Spann explained. Built in 1977 at 11901 Pinnacle Valley Road, it's about 3.7 miles — a 9-minute drive — from the 2,356-acre park's signature feature, the cone-shaped mountain that rises 756 feet from the adjacent flood plain.
Cale Davenport, assistant superintendent of Pinnacle Mountain State Park, said he often finds himself informing patrons that Pinnacle Mountain even has a visitor center.
A brochure handed to patrons at the open house estimates the cost of the new center at $8,787,395. The proposed 8,191-square-foot, glass-walled interior space would suggest a long pavilion, looking out onto a 5,565-square-foot covered patio with public restrooms, bike racks, interpretive exhibits and seating.
The interior would hold administration offices, visitor reception and an information desk with a retail sales counter. Food and beverage concession sales would occupy a separate structure.
An estimated $800,000 would go toward educational exhibits, inside and outside, designed and built by Taylor Studios Inc.
Wayfinding signs will be added to hiking and biking trails, and the center will have maps to increase use of the park's trail system.
The current entrance to the day-use area would be closed and a new entrance built off Arkansas 300. About 100 new parking places would be added — some around the center, and others in the day-use area.
Jordan Thomas, design services manager for planning and development for the state parks, has overseen the design process and site selection. He said the new site is less than a quarter mile from the current entrance off Arkansas 300 but at a higher elevation than the day-use area, which floods occasionally.
Thomas noted that the pavilion in which open-house guests were standing was under several feet of water in 2019.
"Flooding was our biggest constraint in locating the new visitor center site," he added.
Jeff King, manager of planning and development for the state parks, said permits and land review remain to be done for the new road envisioned in the plan and for a multi-use path connecting to the Base Trail.
Thomas said the land at the new site was disturbed by modern activity decades ago, and so no historic resources would be endangered. Pinnacle Mountain State Park is a Trail of Tears National Historic Site.
Thomas said visitors will not have to cross a highway to reach trailheads. Another advantage is "our staff being closer to where the action is from a law enforcement perspective and an interpretive perspective," he said.
Park interpreter Kellie Nichols said the day-use area serves between 600,000 and 1 million visitors a year, based upon car-bumper counters in different parts of the park. Even in 2019, when flooding occurred, more than 500,000 people used the area, she said.
"One of our biggest issues we've recognized over the years," Thomas said, "is most of the public says, 'I don't know where our current visitor center is,' and it's hard to get to. And so one of the goals was a new visitor center location that is more accessible to the public that will capture more of an audience and provide us the opportunity to enhance the educational mission, the interpretive mission, and not just introduce visitors to Pinnacle Mountain State Park but potentially the entire state park system."
A public comment period on the plan ends Oct. 26. Interested people can read details and offer feedback online at arkansasonline.com/1020mount.