In the midst of election week stories and activities, the generosity of a private citizen in Fort Smith has gone largely unnoticed. A land swap and donation of land between Bill Hanna and the City of Fort Smith will enable hikers, canoeists and kayakers public access to the Arkansas River from Carol Ann Cross Park. The swap was approved Tuesday night, November 6 by the Fort Smith Board of Directors.

The high temperatures Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley are currently experiencing can lead to serious heat-related illnesses for some members of the community, cautions an emergency medicine physician at Washington Regional in Fayetteville.

If there is such a thing as 'love at first hike', then that's what happened to me on my first genuine grown-up hiking experience. Growing up as an only child on a farm in southeastern Oklahoma, my playmates were my dogs, a dozen or so laying hens, a half dozen farm cats and some unlucky crawdads. My golden retrievers and I would explore every nook and cranny on the farm and even the meandering stream where my crawdad hole was, but that's about as far as my mom would let me go by myself.