AN ERA IN FAYETTEVILLE

When I first learned of it, Fayetteville, Arkansas was just a soft-sounding place to where my older siblings simply disappeared after high school, while I patiently waited at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma with my parents and the dogs. I knew nothing about the city, and even less about the Ozark Mountains that surrounded it. In the fall of 2009, though, it was my turn to take the plunge.

Affectionately and aptly nicknamed “The Natural State,” Arkansas is a cozy corner of the world that has left an irrevocable imprint upon me. Now that I am quite far from that time and place, I have come to appreciate what sets it apart from any other.

Northwest Arkansas is something of an anomaly compared to the rest of the state, and the American South at large. It is not quite accepted into the country club of your Alabama types, but it also shirks the midwestern identity of nearby