Boat Tours of Lake Fort Smith Prove to Be Effective Interpretive Programs

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas professor is introducing the world to Lake Fort Smith State Park next month. At the international conference of the National Association for Interpretation in Athens, Greece, Gregory M. Benton will present a case study of the effectiveness of a boat tour as an interpretative program about Lake Fort Smith.

Jay Schneider drives a group on a boat tour of Lake Fort Smith last year.

Benton, an assistant professor of recreation in the College of Education and Health Professions, accompanied park interpreter Jay Schneider on the pontoon boat tour seven times between August and November of last year. Benton will present the results of his research at the conference May 6-10 in Greece.

Boat tours of the lake, which was newly opened to the public last year, lasted about two hours and were designed to educate park visitors about the history of the park and the area and the current use of the lake and the park.

On each tour, Benton introduced himself to the group of about 25 visitors and described his study. At the end of the lake trip, Benton asked people whether he could contact them in about a week’s time to conduct a phone interview about their impressions of the trip.

The qualitative study examined three questions:

• Effectiveness of programs to convey significant resources.
• Interpretive programs as a form of recreational activity.
• Visitor recreation and tourism preferences.

Benton’s research focuses on interpretive programs at state and national parks. He has served as a certifier of interpretive products and programs with both the National Park Service Interpretive Development Program and the National Association for Interpretation. In previous research, he found that public land management agencies had added a desire to promote their mission and influence visitor behavior to the seminal goal of interpretation to connect visitors to resources.

In the case of the Lake Fort Smith research, a major goal of the interpretive boat tours was to convey the importance of the water resource while also connecting visitors to other natural, cultural and historical resources. Schneider also wanted to communicate to visitors that swimming is not allowed in the lake to preserve its integrity as the municipal water supply of the city of Fort Smith, which has a population of about 100,000 people.

Jay Schneider is assisted by a family on the tour using life preservers to describe how two lakes were combined to create the new Lake Fort Smith.

To determine effectiveness of the program to convey significant resources, Benton interviewed 53 people and found that 83 percent recalled that the main theme of the interpretive program was the importance of water as a key resource. The results showed that the majority understood that swimming in the lake was prohibited and that a majority favored using the park’s modern swimming pool.

Program transcripts and visitor recall also demonstrated rich description of historical connections forged between the interpreter and the audience.

“The interpreter did a very good job,” Benton said. “When you have a captive audience as in this situation, it’s important to keep the visitors engaged. Jay Schneider did this in several ways. He used props such as a beaver jawbone and bird books, and he asked families to participate in demonstrations. He had children hold up life preservers to represent the old lakes – Lake Fort Smith and Lake Shepherd Springs – and the new lake.”

In assessing interpretive programs as a form of recreational activity, Benton found that more than half of the people who took the boat tour had never viewed an interpretive program before. He also found that the visitors represented a wide variety of water-related recreational interests – fishing, water skiing, boating – and other recreational pursuits such as hiking and picnicking.

The findings suggest that an interpretive boat tour may serve as a portal to other recreational activities and itself serves as a popular recreation form.

In gauging visitor recreation and tourism preferences, Benton found that the visitors traveled to the park almost exclusively for the boat tour. Longitudinal studies may provide a different view of the boat tour demography after the novel first season, he noted.

The research resulted from a new collaboration between the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. Lake Fort Smith State Park was chosen as the site for the first in a series of research studies examining interpretation, recreation and tourism. The park was chosen from among the 52 units in the state park system primarily because of the importance of being reopened after a six-year hiatus in which its two lakes were joined into one. The new lake is three times its former size, and a new visitor center, marina and day use area were built to provide leisure opportunities to visitors.

“This study shows the benefit of an interpretive program also designed as a recreational activity,” Benton said. “As budgets are cut, interpretive programs may be seen as frivolous entertainment. This study shows interpretative programs contribute to public awareness of natural and cultural resources, attract tourists and provide visitors with an educational and fun experience. This interpretive program is also important to the people who have lived in the area all of their lives. We’re telling their stories.”