The Arkansas attorney general’s office on Monday announced a two-year, $500,000 donation to support development of the National Cold War Center in Blytheville.
Attorney General Tim Griffin sent the organization a $250,000 payment in an Oct. 10 letter to “continue the development of the museum.” He said he would donate another $250,000 next year.
Mary Gay Shipley, chair of the center’s board of directors, said the donation is a “valuable vote of confidence in our effort to build a world-class tourist attraction here in the Arkansas Delta.”
“These donations will go a long way in helping us become the world’s premier destination for Cold War history and a major contributor to our local and state economies,” she said.
In May, the center received a $500,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways program, in conjunction with the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The state Division of Arkansas Heritage Cultural Institutions Trust Fund awarded the museum $400,000 in March. In September 2022, the museum received a one-time, $1.9 million allocation from state Legislature. And in November 2022, two steel companies donated a combined $1 million to the project.
The cost of the museum project, not including exhibits, has been estimated at $13 million. Interactive exhibits, two aircraft and a refurbished alert facility are part of the overall plan. A fundraising campaign with a target of $20 million launched a few years ago as part of the first phase of development.
The first major on-site exhibit, which explores the base’s history and its impact on the Blytheville community, opened in 2020.
The National Cold War Center is located on the campus of the former Blytheville Air Force Base, originally known as the Blytheville Army Airfield, which opened in 1942 as a training facility for World War II pilots.
In 1958, the base was converted to a Strategic Air Command alert mission and remained a key U.S. military command for three decades, through events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the signing of the treaties that officially ended the Cold War in the early 1990s.
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