There’s A Magical Trolley Ride In Arkansas That Most People Don’t Know About
You don’t have to go very far to find a magical trolley ride, because the city of Fort Smith has an entire museum devoted to trolleys and other means of public transportation. The Fort Smith Trolley Museum is run by the Fort Smith Streetcar Restoration Association, an organization devoted to preserving and restoring electric streetcars and railroad equipment and educating the public about that equipment. The best part is that you can actually ride on a trolley to see what all the fuss is about, and nothing will make you feel like you’re traveling back in time quite like riding on an old-timey trolley car.
The Fort Smith Trolley Museum is located at 100 South Fourth Street in Fort Smith. You can find directions here.
Fort Smith preserves the trolley tradition in part because before everything was paved, downtown Fort Smith looked like this:
Fort Smith Light and Traction Company Car No. 224 is one of only four streetcars on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been in operation in downtown Fort Smith since 1991. You can still ride on it today.
To read about why Fort Smith is one of Arkansas’s most underrated cities, click here. For more historical stuff to do in the area, check out this article.
Arkansas In Your Inbox
Thank you! You'll receive your first newsletter soon!
J.B. Weisenfels has lived in rural Arkansas for three decades. She is a writer, a mom, and a graduate student. She is also an avid collector of tacky fish whatnots, slightly chipped teapots, and other old things. In her spare time she enjoys driving to the nearest creek to sit a while. If you were to visit her, she'd try to feed you cornbread.
