Stories by Rex Nelson

OPINION | REX NELSON: Arsenal of democracy The news release in May was the kind that has now become common in south Arkansas. HIMARS launchers, which are assembled near Camden by Lockheed Martin, had been delivered to Poland.According to the r... June 10, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Camden on the defense Against all odds, Ukraine continues to hold its own in its war against Russia. What most Arkansans don't realize is that the Ukrainians are relying in part on weapons systems assembled in the pine... June 7, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: State of the arts Has there ever been a small state with as much money being invested in the arts as is the case in Arkansas right now? I can't think of one.We start our statewide tour in Bentonville, where the alr... June 4, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The lithium boom Billed by The Wall Street Journal as an exclusive, the story in the May 22 edition outlined developments that could have huge implications for south Arkansas, an area that has struggled for decades. T... June 3, 2023

The Southern Fried Podcast: Arkansas economic roundup with Skip Rutherford Rex Nelson's back in the studio after his recent accident and joined by Skip Rutherford to discuss recent major economic developments across the state, from lithium refinement in southern Arkansas... June 2, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Letters to Dan Don House has spent four decades photographing and writing about the Arkansas Ozarks. From his base in Hazel Valley in rural Washington County, he has explored everything from abandoned cemeteries to ... May 31, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Mike Trimble’s magic I'm among that fortunate group of Arkansans who read Mike Trimble's stories and columns in the Arkansas Gazette. Running out to the driveway to pick up that morning's Gazette was part of m... May 28, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Celebrating Arkansas pie It's a beautiful spring Saturday, and I'm eating pie. Not just one piece of pie, mind you. A lot of pie.The occasion is the third annual Arkansas Pie Festival at Cherokee Village, and I'm ... May 27, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The truck won I took on a pickup in Atlanta, and the truck won.Our family was in Georgia for a festive series of events. My son Evan was receiving a law degree and an MBA from highly regarded Emory University follo... May 24, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Spring at Poison Spring The south Arkansas woods were filled with gunfire on that spring day in 1864 as Confederate troops ambushed a Union foraging expedition at a place called Poison Spring. In a war known for its atrociti... May 21, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The visionaries In retrospect, it's clear that former Pulaski County Judge Floyd G."Buddy" Villines was a visionary. Villines was county judge for 24 years, serving until the end of 2014. He was a maste... May 20, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The sweet life It's fitting that Shelley Short, president and CEO of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, is ordering something sweet with her coffee during our meeting at JavaPrimo in downtow... May 17, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The new Henderson Chuck Ambrose, chancellor of Henderson State University at Arkadelphia, is impressed by the resilience of his students."They went through a pandemic and fiscal crisis at this school," Ambros... May 14, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Back from the grave It's time for my interview with Henderson State University Chancellor Chuck Ambrose, but something has slowed us down. It's the first day of March Madness, and the 13th-seeded Furman Paladins ... May 13, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Mountain of opportunity It's time to escape Little Rock and celebrate the fact that legislators have gone home following a session that could only be described as divisive and mean. I'm spending the day atop Petit Je... May 10, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: To the mountaintop Following the worst legislative session of my lifetime, I need a trip to the mountaintop. I head for Petit Jean Mountain. Hoping for a day of relaxation and contemplation, I decide not to take Interst... May 7, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: An Ozarks introduction When I lived on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, one of my favorite annual events was the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall. I would visit with people from the featured... May 6, 2023

The Southern Fried Podcast: Community baseball in Arkansas with Lance Restum With the Travelers’ season in full swing, Lance Restum is back on this week’s episode to talk Arkansas baseball with Rex Nelson.<center><iframe class="castos-iframe-player&qu... May 5, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Ozarks authority On a winter day in 1992, Brooks Blevins walked into a cramped, windowless office in the attic of the Alphin Building on the campus of what's now Lyon College in Batesville. The man I consider the ... May 3, 2023

Good roads I'm riding through what once was Fort Chaffee with Keith Gibson, a west Arkansas business leader and member of the powerful Arkansas Highway Commission. We're looking at land that eventually w... April 30, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Celebrating Arkansas food I wrote last year about a trip I took with Jamie McAfee, the chef at the Pine Bluff Country Club, to the legendary Dixie Pig in Blytheville. After reading a column about Dixie Pig, McAfee contacted me... April 30, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The hall of famers When we began the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame in 2017, we decided to keep it exclusive. I can think of almost 100 restaurants in Arkansas that deserve recognition, but we knew this needed to be somethi... April 29, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: More than a stepchild Andrew Rogerson, the chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, announced his resignation in August 2019. It was a time of declining enrollment and large budget cuts at UALR. Surprisingl... April 26, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Starving higher ed For a couple of weeks during this year's legislative session, education dominated the conversation at the state Capitol. But it was all of the K-12 variety.This state continues to starve higher ed... April 23, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Central Avenue musings The Colonial Pancake and Waffle House, which has been a fixture for six decades in Hot Springs, is packed on this Friday morning. It's spring break for most Texas schools, and Texans fill the side... April 22, 2023

The Southern Fried Podcast: Politics, presidents and progress in Arkansas with Skip Rutherford Skip Rutherford’s back for his first 2023 appearance on the Southern Fried Podcast. <center><iframe class="castos-iframe-player" src="https://60ccd49376f759-56068567... April 21, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Funding for the future I'm at a large round table with a group of Arkansas business and civic leaders. We're sharing lunch and discussing economic development.Sitting next to me is attorney Bryan Hosto, who has inve... April 19, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Kingsland Cash Arkansas has received a lot of positive publicity because of its decision to place statues of Johnny Cash and Daisy Bates in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall."The Man in Black will be arrivin... April 16, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Northeast corner cashes in Later this month, we'll mark the anniversary of the deadliest maritime disaster in American history. On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and burned on the Mississippi River near what... April 15, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Arkansas optimists It's easy to become depressed if one focuses on politics and government. At the state Capitol, the Know Nothings controlled the legislative session, just as was the case during the previous regula... April 12, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Arkansas comes last When David Pryor was governor from 1975-79, he kept a plaque on his desk that read "Arkansas Comes First."In these first three months of the Sarah Sanders administration, it has become clear... April 9, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The game-changer It was one of those holidays that mainly benefit bankers and government employees (George Washington's birthday, to be exact), and the streets of downtown Little Rock were empty. After breakfast a... April 8, 2023

The Southern Fried Podcast: Elizabeth Anderson discusses the Lonoke Business Academy, rural community development Elizabeth Burns Anderson, executive director of the Farmers Bank Foundation, joins Rex Nelson on this week’s episode to discuss the development of the Lonoke Business Academy and other efforts a... April 7, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Loving a house I love old houses. I know a city is a good place to live when its residents work hard to preserve and restore historic properties. However, I've never fallen in love with a house quite like Mark C... April 5, 2023

Celebrating a century Dr. Thomas William Hardison, physician for the Fort Smith Lumber Co., had a dream. He thought company holdings on Petit Jean Mountain should be a national park."Following a brief practice at Tuck... April 2, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: End of an era Arkansas lost more population per capita than any other state from 1940-1960. At the beginning of that period, this state had seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. We're down to four.A... April 2, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Luckenbach and us We left our son's apartment in Austin early that morning to begin our exploration of the Texas Hill Country. My wife is a native Texan and, like me, has always been fascinated by Lyndon Johnson. M... April 1, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Jerome and Rohwer I enjoy driving the rural roads of southeast Arkansas, a historic region that has been losing population for decades. It's quiet here, and I find solace on these flat highways. There are small res... March 29, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Moores the merrier March 12 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of one of the most influential county sheriffs in Arkansas history, Robert Moore Sr. of Desha County. He had an automobile accident two days earlier s... March 26, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: A judge’s obsession As an Arkansas history aficionado, I love Fort Smith. I can spend a full day downtown, hanging out at Fort Smith National Historic Site and the adjacent Fort Smith Museum of History, taking my time an... March 25, 2023

The Southern Fried Podcast: Little Rock's master plan for tourism Gina Gemberling, president and CEO of the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, joins Rex Nelson on this week’s episode of the Southern Fried Podcast to discuss some key points of the ag... March 24, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The vital component Earlier this year, the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau (LRCVB) released a tourism master plan for the state's largest city. The plan noted that 21 percent of Arkansas' tourism spend... March 22, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: Asa’s new role I wrote a lot about the Democratic Leadership Council when I worked in Washington, D.C., for the Arkansas Democrat in the 1980s. That's because a politically ambitious Arkansas governor thought th... March 19, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The little things Several hundred people gathered one afternoon last month at the Statehouse Convention Center as the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau (LRCVB) released its first-ever citywide tourism master p... March 18, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Lyon roars Social media has its drawbacks--far too many to name here. When used correctly, however, it can connect us with interesting people. I've long used my Facebook page to feature Arkansas stories and ... March 15, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: A naturalist’s paradise We're the only boat on the water this Thursday afternoon at Grassy Lake. It's a naturalist's dream, as if someone took a piece of the Florida Everglades and moved it to Arkansas.Alligators... March 12, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Arkansas Cash I received an email from Wayne Cash, a distant cousin of Johnny Cash, just as I was finishing a book on Johnny. I've written about Wayne before. He has done more than anyone I know to keep the Kin... March 11, 2023

The Southern Fried Podcast: The state of education in Arkansas if (!window.Zephr) window.Zephr = {}; window.Zephr.accessDetails = {"isAuthenticated":true,"accessDecisions":{},"entitlements":{"tJGphj":{"isUsedInDecision":false},"DEHGFt":{"isUsedInDecision":... March 10, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Lee Ronnel story In December, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra announced the largest individual gift in its 56-year history. The gift came from the estate of Lee Ronnel, who died in January 2022 at age 85. Christina Li... March 8, 2023

OPINION | REX NELSON: The Lyon legacy On Jan. 26 at The Breakers, a posh Palm Beach hotel, Arkansas' Jane Lyon was in the spotlight. The occasion was the annual Eclipse Awards ceremony for thoroughbred racing.Lyon's Kentucky farm ... March 5, 2023