LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Arkansas' capital has things to offer that aren't linked to the 42nd president of the United States, although any visit to Little Rock should include stops on the unofficial "Clinton Scandal Tour."
Bill Clinton's popularity, despite his impeachment, plays a large part in bringing tourists to Little Rock, but visitors shouldn't forget that for every fast-food restaurant, hole-in-the-wall diner or hotel room that the president made popular, there's a symphony, theater troupe or museum catering to a growing city.The city, named for a little rock on the south bank of the Arkansas River, is the birthplace of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the place where one of the youngest Confederate spies was hanged. The state Capitol was built on the grounds of the old state penitentiary and has been featured in motion pictures as a stand-in for the U.S. Capitol. Many know Little Rock as the testing ground for school integration in the 1950s.
But all-things-Clinton give the city its calling card. Clinton lived in the city 16 years -- longer than he has stayed anywhere else -- his birthplace of Hope, his boyhood home of Hot Springs, his first married home in Fayetteville, and his present home, the White House.
It was in Little Rock that Clinton developed some of his most enduring images -- from the McDonald's-craving jogger to the alleged womanizer and victorious campaigner.
A tour of Clinton sites can consume much of a day and along the way also cross paths with some of Little Rock's independently historical attractions.
Take, for example, the Old State House, built in 1836 as the state's first Capitol. It's now a museum and formed the white-columned backdrop of Clinton's presidential victory celebrations in 1992 and 1996.
"The Old State House is one of the most recognizable buildings. It put Little Rock and Arkansas on the map in a way that nothing before or since has done," says Hallie Simmins of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The museum has been closed for three years for renovations, which have been hampered by a fire, but tourists still stop to gaze at the building, conveniently located next to an infamous Clinton spot -- the Excelsior Hotel.
It was in an eighth-floor room at the Excelsior where Clinton allegedly exposed himself in 1991 to state worker Paula Jones. The alleged incident prompted her lawsuit, which turned up evidence of Clinton's recent affair with Monica Lewinsky, which became entwined in Kenneth Starr's investigation, which led to Clinton's impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice and, ultimately, to a Senate trial.
"I think Clinton has had a positive impact on our state overall," Simmins says. "But we all expected the good and were not that prepared for some of the other scrutiny that came along."
The city's brochure about Clinton includes only the positives -- the Excelsior is mentioned only for its chandelier and glass elevators. There's no mention of the federal courthouse about eight blocks away, where the Whitewater grand jury met every other week from 1994 to 1998. The courthouse is also where Clinton's Whitewater land partners, James and Susan McDougal, were convicted of fraud, along with Clinton's gubernatorial successor, Jim Guy Tucker.
Another eight blocks west of the courthouse is the state Capitol, where Clinton served as governor for 12 years (1979-1981 and 1983-1992). The Capitol displays a brief history of Clinton, as well as two portraits -- a presidential one in the rotunda and a boyish-looking one of Arkansas' youngest leader amid the portraits of past governors.
The huge building sits slightly off the city grid.
Inmates still lived at the site while the building was under construction.
"They didn't tear down the prison wall until the basement was finished and part of the first floor, and that's when they discovered that the Capitol sat a few degrees off from the way the streets run," says Capitol Historian Ann Clements.
The imperfectly aligned Capitol was begun 100 years ago and completed in 1915 at a cost of $2.2 million. It includes six bronze doors purchased from Tiffany's of New York.
Because of its likeness to the U.S. Capitol, it has been featured in several movies. In the 1985 movie "Under Siege," it was blown up by terrorists. Then it was attacked by the Soviet Union in the 1986 movie "Amerika."
For Christmas, the Capitol's exterior sparkled with white lights donated by wealthy businessman Jennings Osborne, who used to decorate his Little Rock home until the state Supreme Court declared it a public nuisance because it clogged the street with sightseers.
For those hoping to see legislators in the House and Senate chambers, the season is short. The General Assembly meets only in odd years, and then only from January until April, if that long.
The Governor's Mansion, although closed to the public, also bears Clinton's mark. A bust of the president is perched at the front gates.
Before becoming governor, Clinton and his family lived in two other Little Rock homes -- one a modest one-story brick home, the other a more pricey two-story frame house. Both are marked on the city's visitor brochure.
Also of interest, but not open to the public, are the Rose Law Firm, where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Webb Hubbell worked, and Clinton's 1992 "War Room," the former Arkansas Gazette building that functioned as his campaign headquarters.
Besides the Old State House, Clinton is connected marginally to a couple of historic buildings -- Central High School and Union Station.
As president, Clinton has voted at the old Missouri Pacific Railroad station, which was the largest U.S. rail station built for a single railroad. The brick building with a bell tower now houses the city's Children's Museum.
The still-functioning Central High School drew national attention in 1957 when then-Gov. Orval Faubus tried to stop the school's integration, prompting President Eisenhower to call in federal troops. Clinton was the keynote speaker at the event's 40th anniversary. The school and a nearby visitor's center were designated last year as national historical sites.
For tourists needing a food break, there are some Clinton favorites -- the homely Doe's Eat Place near Union Station; the Mexican restaurant and bar Juanita's, where he occasionally played his saxophone; and the double-decker McDonald's on Broadway.
For a break from Clinton, tourists can see the birthplace of MacArthur, who was born while his father was stationed at the Little Rock Arsenal. The building is now a military museum.
The Mount Holly Cemetery, on the National Register of Historic Places, is the resting place of numerous prominent Arkansans, including David O. Dodd, who at age 17 was one of the youngest people hanged as a Confederate spy.
Little Rock also offers the Arkansas Territorial Restoration, a one-block area downtown in which some of the city's oldest buildings have been preserved as a walk-through museum. The oldest, the Hinderliter Tavern built in 1820, served as the occasional meeting place for the territorial legislature and crammed guests two or three to a bed in an upstairs inn.
"This was a rough place on the edge of the frontier, and ladies were not allowed in the tavern," recounts tour guide Georgann McKinney, pointing to a re-created bar that has wooden bars to protect its tender.
The land also contains the site of the first Little Rock print shop for the Arkansas Gazette, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River when it closed in 1991.
A short walk from the Territorial Restoration is Little Rock's present-day hub of eateries, microbreweries and entertainment. The River Market district, near where settlers first docked along the Arkansas River, found new life in the 1980s and '90s as abandoned buildings were converted into businesses, apartments, a science museum and the city library. Clinton's presidential library is to be built on land a short distance away.
The river park amphitheater hosts concerts and anchors the city's annual Riverfest over Memorial Day weekend. In the summer and fall, the River Market features an outdoor farmers market. And in December, it has an outdoor ice-skating rink.
Little Rock is a minor-league town for baseball and hockey. The Arkansas Travelers, affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals, play at a nostalgic field virtually unchanged since the 1930s, except that home runs over the high right-field fence now land on an urban interstate.
The Arkansas GlacierCats play hockey at the state fairgrounds. A second team is to begin this year at an arena being constructed in North Little Rock. Little Rock also hosts half the home football games for the University of Arkansas.
Outdoor adventurers can drive 10 miles east of Little Rock to the Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park to see the remains of a Native American village more than a millennium old. In North Little Rock is the scenic Old Mill, featured in the opening of "Gone with the Wind."
Ten miles west of Little Rock is Pinnacle Mountain, with rocky hikes for serious or casual climbers.
Back in the city, there's Villa Marre, a 19th-century home shown in the opening credits of the TV show "Designing Women."
The city's namesake rock juts out from the Arkansas River bank downtown. There's a big rock, too, but it's upriver and on the north shore.
Little Rock's rock is a lot smaller than when settlers spotted it the first time.
"In the early maps of Little Rock, it shows up almost as the finger of a hand reaching out of the bank," says Russell P. Baker, archival manager for the Arkansas History Commission. "When they built that railroad bridge in the 1880s, they blasted away more than half of the rock. So it's now just a little nub. It looks like an amputated hand."