Arkansas
From the 50 State Visitor Guide :
A.C.A. 2019 §§ 5-14-128 through 5-14-134, §9-27-356, §§ 12-12-901 through
12-12-926, §12-12-1513, 004 00 C.A.R.R. 002, 172 00 C.A.R.R. 014.
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
“Residency” includes 5 or more aggregate days in a calendar year. §12-12-903(10) & state policy. If relocating within state, register 10 days before or 3 business days after an eviction or natural disaster. Homeless registrants report every 30 days. §§12-12-904, 12-12-909.
Sexually Violent Offenders report every 3 mo. All others report every 6 mo. §§12-12-909, 12-12-919.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Residence restriction: L3 & L4 offenders: 2,000 ft. of elementary or secondary school, public park, day care center, youth center, also 2,000 ft. of victim.
L4 offenders: 2,000 ft. of a church.
Presence restriction: L3 & L4 offenders: may not knowingly enter a swimming area, water park, or playground in a state park. §15-14-134. May not enter schools in certain circumstances. §§5-14-132 through 5-14-134.
NOTE: Per Arkansas SOR office, visitors aren’t bound by these restrictions until required to register – because that’s when they will assign an offense level.
NOTE: Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED. (per Rolfe Survey and confirmed by state SOR office). $250 one time registry fee.
Duration & updates:
Life. Petition after 15 yrs. except SVP
Most recent visit: June 2023
Arkansas, home of the Ozarks, Hot Springs and many historic sites, has much to recommend it as a travel and vacation destination. However, as a registered person you’ll need to be careful about planning your trip there because you only get five days aggregate per calendar year before you have to register. Furthermore, if you re-read the language above you’ll see that it says “‘residency’ includes 5 or more aggregate days in a calendar year.” In other words, the 5th day triggers the registration requirement, so you really only get four days. And as always, one should always assume that partial days will count toward the total.
Last but certainly not least, Arkansas is one of about 15 U.S. states where, according to the Rolfe survey and confirmed for me by the very friendly lady at the state SOR office, if you screw up and wind up on their registry, YOU ARE NEVER REMOVED when you leave. And like most of those 15 states, Arkansas is a LIFETIME registry state no matter your offense or tier level. So please plan your trip to Arkansas very carefully.
The silver lining is that, because Arkansas’ onerous presence and residency requirements apply only to “Level 3 & 4” registrants, and because these tier levels are only assigned after registration, they can’t very well apply them to you as a short term (four days or less) visitor, now can they? This was also confirmed for me by the nice lady at the SOR office.
I passed through Arkansas most recently in June 2023 on my way to the NARSOL Conference in Houston. Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas are cave and cavern country, so I left I-49 while still in Missouri looking for a candidate cavern from among those in a brochure called “Explore the Caves of the Ozarks” available at the Visitor Centers of both states.
I decided on Cosmic Cavern, which is on the Arkansas side. Sadly, if you want to see how stupid people have been with our natural treasures Cosmic Cavern could be Exhibit #1. Discovered by Europeans in 1835, their first impulse wasn’t to preserve it but to mine it (for Onyx, so Henry Ford could make cool-looking gear shift knobs), so most of the formations have been destroyed. Early souvenir hunters broke off most of the stalactites. They chased the bats away by throwing flaming barrels of oil down into the cavern, barbequing what was left of it.
However, at the far end of cavern you will see what they call “the OMG room,” only discovered in the 1990’s. It really is stunningly beautiful. But then you realize that’s what the entire cavern must’ve looked like before we humans got our hands on it. I wanted to cry.
The following morning I took scenic byways through the national forests on my way to Hot Springs and it was amazing. Hot Springs is a Late Victorian Era resort town based around the idea that bathing in hot mineral spas was healthy for you. Now it’s a national park and many of the buildings, walkways and mineral pools have been restored for your enjoyment. It’s great! but then it was time to hop on I-30 and head for Texas.
In late March 2022 I spent most of two days in Arkansas. Entering from Mississippi I stopped at a Welcome Center on US 65 and picked up a bunch of brochures as I always do. The first thing that caught my eye was the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff. Yes, if you’ve been reading my blogs you already know I’m a big historic train ride and railroad history buff. . This museum is real stand-out, housed in an enormous railhead warehouse. Lots to see, but no train ride. Be careful though – it’s only open Thurs-Sat 10:00-2:00. I showed up at 1:20 pm!
Next stop was the Arkansas River Trail in Downtown Little Rock. Here I ran into a problem – it’s very long. The Main Loop is 16 miles all together. I’m sure it’s beautiful, and I’m sure there must be somewhere to rent a bike for the day, but it was late afternoon so I was out of options. Note to self: If you want to try that again, get there in the morning! Once I left Little Rock I camped at Lake Sylvia in Quachita National Forest. Beautiful, close to the city and has hot showers! Yey!
My second day on that trip I was lured up to Witt Springs, home of the Richland Waterfalls Welcome Center. Supposedly they have 35 beautiful waterfalls in close proximity, but the problem is not one of them has a trail going to it nor any sign telling you where they are. Instead the brochure gives you GPS coordinates and you are expected to bushwhack! Well I didn’t have time for that so I had to bail.
Instead I proceeded to the Ozark Folk Center, which is a state park in the town of Mountain View. It includes an educational Craft Village, or at least it must be educational except that it was not scheduled to open for the season until April 15. Oh well.
Time to go find a campground out of state. But in the last town in Arkansas I found Mammoth Spring State Park, home of its namesake spring which flows 10 million gallons per hour into Spring Lake, and the Spring River. I spent a waning hour of daylight on that second day walking the interpretive trail which includes a historic train depot museum (but it was closed).
Then POOF! I was in Missouri.
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