April 21, 2026 – Northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, and Rogers is in the mix of it all. It’s a city of contrasts set amid stunning Ozark landscape: A quaint historic downtown and buzzy, upscale mixed-use district.
Some folks call it the “Walmart Bubble.”
Rogers was a backwoods railroad town where Sam Walton opened his first discount store in 1962. As we probably all know, that enterprise, Walmart, became the largest retailer in the country. The company is headquartered in next-door Bentonville, and huge numbers of its vendor partners established corporate offices in the area. An influx of executives and managers and their families have relocated here from around the world, bringing with them their lifestyle preferences and demands.
The Walton influence is integrated throughout the area in myriad positive ways. Most everybody has a story to tell, whether they work for the company, transferred here for the company, service the people who work for the company, or benefit in some other way.
Stay and play in uptown
Pinnacle Hills, also called Uptown, built up around the new corporate offices with hotels, convention center, restaurants, entertainment, spas, and the posh, open-air Pinnacle Hills Promenade shopping and lifestyle center. Topgolf and Malco Cinema, also.
I booked my stay at Hotel Avail Rogers, Tapestry Collection by Hilton. The 168-room hotel, which opened in June 2025, sports a serene modern vibe and still imparts that brand-new fragrance.
On the sixth floor is the Oak Steakhouse, which has quickly become the go-to dining venue for the business and social sets. The restaurant is configured with two bars, one on the expansive covered terrace where you can watch seasonal fireworks.
Just footsteps down the road from the hotel is Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion, or Walmart AMP for short. With a seating capacity of about 12,000 guests, it’s the state’s largest outdoor performance venue. Past headliners have included Jason Aldean, Jonas Brothers, Meghan Trainor, Boyz II Men, and Nate Bargatze. Upgrade your experience with a pre-show hangout, private boxes with catering, lawn chair rental, fast-track seating, and other perks.
Historic and nostalgic downtown
As the city continues its outward sprawl, Downtown Rogers unfurls with blocks and blocks of brick-lined streets and welcomes visitors with down-home hospitality. It’s anchored by the new-ish (2021) Railyard Park, a linear entertainment and recreation zone alongside the railroad tracks. Punctuated by a trio of colorful water towers, the park features a stage, splash pad, dog park, and shaded picnic seating. Hop on an e-bike from Phat Tire Bike Shop and ride the trail to Lake Atalanta Park and beyond.
Rogers Historical Museum is housed in a former car dealership built in 1947. Permanent galleries trace the city’s expansion and daily life from early settlements to the present day. Recent displays include a collection of vintage Ozark quilts depicting an array of designs and sewing techniques.
Across the street from the museum is the 1895 Hawkins House, a restored and furnished middle-class brick Victorian home, which is open for guided tours. When I was there, the home was decorated for a funeral with mirrors covered in black cloth and a coffin in the parlor.
The Daisy Airgun Museum presents a chronology of Daisy’s far-reaching history and an extensive collection of vintage airguns, including every Daisy – and the iconic Red Ryder – model ever made. Daisy has been manufacturing airguns since 1889 and in Rogers since 1958.
I was a tad wary of visiting because, well, guns, but I was impressed with the company’s enduring safety program. Later, I checked with my brother, who was gifted a BB gun as a child. What brand was it? A Daisy, he told me.
The museum stands prominently on a corner in the city’s historic district in a renovated 1894 storefront building. Leaning against the facade is a 25-foot-tall sculpture of a Daisy BB gun, a photo prop inviting selfies. The gun doesn’t shoot, however. If it did, the ammo would have to be almost an inch and a half in diameter, slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball.
While you are in Rogers
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art integrates a world-renowned collection spanning five centuries of American art within a scenic 134-acre wooded setting. Founded by Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton, and starchitect Moshe Safdie, the campus is designed with a series of contemporary glassy pavilions flanking and intersecting two spring-fed ponds, and is soon to be expanded.
Spacious galleries are hung with works by the likes of Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Yayoi Kusama, and Amy Sherald, and many other significant artists of varying styles and genres. The museum’s main restaurant, Eleven, is crowned with a gleaming heart sculpture by Jeff Koons. Five miles of scenic trails wind throughout the site, studded with sculptures, outdoor artworks, and a Frank Lloyd Wright house that was moved in pieces from New Jersey.
Some arrive with open wounds, broken or missing teeth, or bone fractures that didn’t heal properly. Their growth may have been stunted due to malnutrition and cramped living conditions. Many are emaciated, and a few have been declawed. Others were owned and exploited by “Tiger King” Joe Exotic previous to his federal murder-for-hire conviction. And a cougar named Smitty had been confined in a 2-foot x 4-foot cargo drum lined with excrement.
Today, Turpentine Creek’s residents live in grassy fenced habitats where they receive nourishing diets, medical care, enrichment toys, sunshine, and shade. As you stroll along the paved promenade, you see many of the animals as they frolic or snooze. Interpretive signs tell their stories and illustrate the various species’ lifestyles and quirks. Your admission ticket includes an hour-long, narrated tour through the 459-acre refuge on an open-air tram.
Another popular roadside stop is the War Eagle Mill, one of the few working water-powered grist mills in the country, and possibly the only remaining undershot wheel – water from the War Eagle Creek runs beneath the wheel, not over it.
The first three were destroyed by fire or flood.
Watch narrated demonstrations of the mill at work and shop the General Store for organic flours and grains, homemade preserves and jellies, and other gourmet food products.
Culinary excellence
Rogers’ dining scene is exciting and delicious as new restaurants flourish and mainstays reinvent themselves.
Legacy steakhouse Ruth’s Chris, for one, re-opened last year in a two-story space vamped with modern art, light-hued woods, and golden accents. It’s the largest restaurant of the 100-plus units in the franchise.
Rogers boasts two James Beard nominees for Best Chef: South, both evolving from modest food trucks. Jordan Wright of Wright’s Barbecue is a local fave with five outlets, and a repeat entry in Chicago’s annual Windy City Smokehouse competition. Rafael Rios at Yeyo’s Mezcaleria and Taqueria, with 200 mezcal labels on hand, elevates Mexican cuisine into high culinary art.
Tusk & Trotter is an American brasserie and Arkansas original with a meat-centric menu. Executive chef and partner Rob Nelson is a five-time finalist for Best Chef in Arkansas.
At Mirabella’s Table, weekend brunch is an all-you-can-eat buffet with a twist: Order from a menu, as many items as you like, and servers deliver it freshly made on small plates to your table.
Ozark Beer Co. is a craft brewery celebrating classic American beer styles with a menu of year-round standards and rotating small batches. (SquirrelBrau, a premium American lager, is the official beer of the World Championship Squirrel Cookoff. Yes, that’s a thing.) The taproom is a community hangout with a calendar of special events, food trucks, and kids’ play area.
Rogers is a coffee mecca, with two fine purveyors of meticulously brewed java. Onyx Coffee Lab and headquarters is located in a historic 1907 building downtown, and Confident Coffee occupies a cheerful light-filled storefront in Pinnacle Hills. Both roast and grind select beans from international growers.
In addition to lengthy rosters of coffee (and tea) creations, the coffeehouses further entice with freshly made bakery bites plus cozy seating arrangements for working or conversing. You’ll definitely want to linger, which I hope to do the next time I visit Rogers, Arkansas.
Photos by Pamela Dittmer McKuen except as noted.
