The courthouse square in central Bentonville is worth a morning on its own. Independent restaurants and coffee shops line the surrounding blocks, and the walkability of the compact downtown is unusual for an Arkansas city of this size. The Walmart Museum is on the square, as are several galleries and cycling shops. Saturday farmers' markets run here in summer.
Downtown Bentonville Square
A story
The Bentonville town square is the kind of American courthouse square that Walmart's own expansion across the country helped to hollow out elsewhere. Here, paradoxically, Walmart money has helped revitalise it: independent coffee shops, farm-to-table restaurants, cycling-focused shops, and an art gallery now occupy buildings that might otherwise be vacant. The Benton County Courthouse at the centre dates from 1928 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Confederate monument on the lawn was removed in 2020.