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The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission may be the driving force behind the establishment, maintenance and continued growth of the Northwoods Trail System that opened in November of 2018, but Steve Arrison’s agency isn’t in this alone.
The Northwoods Trail System is a mountain bike and hiking trail system contained on a 2,015-acre tract of land, owned by the city of Hot Springs, less than 1 mile north and west of downtown.
Arrison worked with the Walton Family Foundation, the city of Hot Springs, and the National Park Service to raise the necessary funding and also gain access to land that had been closed to the public for years because it contains three lakes that provided the main water source for Hot Springs.
A donation of $648,421 by the Walton Family Foundation was matched by the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission to form a budget for Phase 1 of the project.
Phase 1 includes 26.6 miles of trail, with 16.6 new miles adding to the 10-mile network already in place.
Health and wellness is a byproduct of the project, Arrison said, but the primary goal was to increase tourism and revenues by adding an attraction that would appeal to millennials and those younger.
The idea, Arrison said, is to establish a cycle of families coming to Hot Springs to ride and hike the trails, and then when they get older, they will bring their kids.
One of the biggest challenges for Arrison’s commission, aside from promoting and maintaining the trail system with two full-time employees, is to expand the system to a 44.6-mile network and create easy access for tourists and local residents.
Working with the National Park Service to add a trailhead off of downtown was a big bridge to cross since bikes have not been allowed on Hot Springs National Park property in the past.
Another donation of $450,000 from the Walton Family Foundation earlier this year was used to upgrade the Cedar Glades Trails, already in existence, to make them part of the Northwoods system.
More than 15,000 riders from 30 states and four countries have accessed the trail system since it opened one year ago.
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