Kyle Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. I’m Kyle Kellams. With me on the phone from her office in Bella Vista is Becca Martin Brown.
It is time to go the other way. Becca, welcome back.
Becca Martin Brown: Did you ever wonder why, since I’m supposed to be retired, I’m always in my office in Bella Vista?
Kellams: I think it’s because you’re a workaholic, but that’s just me.
Brown: And it takes one to know one, Mr. Kettle.
Kellams: Guilty, guilty.
But we have a great story to tell. This time, we are going to talk to Alison McElroy, who is involved with the Rogers Historical Museum Foundation. And we’re going to talk about an event they’re having in September called Historical Tastings.
Kellams: They have a history of doing these very well.
Brown: And this one involves sake.
Kellams: Made in Arkansas?
Brown: Yes, as a matter of fact.
Kellams: Well, I have so many questions about this. Should we call Alison McElroy?
Brown: I think we should.
Kellams: And I believe Alison McElroy is on the phone with us now. Are you there, Alison?
Alison McElroy: I am doing just great, especially getting to talk to you guys.
Kellams: We’re excited to talk to you about this event and about sake. Becca Martin Brown is with me.
Brown: Alison, will you tell us first about the Rogers Historical Museum Foundation and what its purpose is in life?
McElroy: It’s one of those things that is very confusing, but we’re trying to make it less confusing. The Rogers Historical Museum was a gift to the city of Rogers, and they’re celebrating their 50th birthday this year.
The foundation was started back in 2009 when the museum decided to purchase the old Haley building, where the newspaper used to be in downtown Rogers on Second Street. They wanted to remodel that and make it a show-stopping space for the museum. Because the museum is run by the city, it is not a nonprofit organization. So the community started the foundation so they could raise money and help that dream become a reality.
When that project was completed, they decided we should continue those efforts and start to build a foundation and do fundraising so that someday, if another property or another huge acquisition were to come about, the foundation could step in and support the museum as needed.
One great example happened last year when the tornado hit. We were very lucky that the museum did not have extensive damage like a lot of the downtown area did, but all of the board could think of at that time was how fortunate we were. If we could continue to build this endowment and these resources, if that museum had been struck, we would have had a way to support it.
Brown: And so when you do a fundraising event like this Historical Tastings, does that happen every year? Or does it happen when somebody has a good idea?
McElroy: The Historical Tastings got started in the fall of 2022. The foundation board was trying to figure out, okay, we don’t have the building, we’re not raising money for the building, but we need to be making connections and networking, and we need a fundraiser. They came up with this event.
At that time it was called An Evening of Historical Spirits. When I first heard about it, I wasn’t involved yet, but I thought it was something with ghosts and goblins and you were going to summon up some old Rogers chain zombies walking downtown or something. Then I quickly discovered it was a tasting event. Their very first featured tasting was the Macon Carson apple brandy made over in Bentonville, but started from the huge surplus of apples Rogers used to have years ago.
It’s literally a tasting, but they did the play on words with historical spirits. What we figured out over the last couple of years is that a lot of people thought it was a ghost-and-goblins kind of night instead of a tasting night. So this year we decided to call it Historical Tastings. That way, if we want to taste chocolate, tamales, spirits, wine, or local beers, it fits the title.
This year, we were really trying to figure out who we could feature. If it’s from Arkansas, that makes it even better. Someone discovered the Origami Sake people out of Hot Springs. That is our featured tasting partner this year—Origami Sake, made in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Arkansas happens to have something to do with rice. The people at Origami thought, why are we not making sake? We have all the rice we could want here. It’s a special kind of rice, grown by the Isbell family farm in Arkansas. From what I’m gathering, this is sake like no one’s ever had before.
Kellams: We can call it Arkan-sake, I suppose. Rogers Historical Museum concentrates on Rogers history and Ozarks history. But through these events, you remind people there’s an entire state here. Is that intentional or happenstance?
McElroy: Yes. It ties back to the museum’s goal: to show people that museums don’t have to be limited to boundaries. In Northwest Arkansas, the boundaries are blurring more every year.
We invite children to come on field trips, and kids have come from all over, like West Fork and other parts of the state. One of the foundation’s biggest missions is when a field trip comes to the Rogers Historical Museum, we reimburse schools for travel expenses, bus drivers, and mileage so they don’t have to take it out of their budget.
The goal is to show everyone that no matter where you’re from, we want you to come visit the museum because it’s all part of Arkansas history. We also want to bring awareness to how much in Arkansas we are truly grateful and blessed to have.
Kellams: How does the event itself work?
McElroy: We’ll have a little bento box for each guest so that they have some nibbles before the tasting starts. Then it’ll be a little bit like communion. We’ll have a presentation portion for each thing we taste, and some history will be shared about it.
Jessica Kihei from Sweet Freedom Cheese is going to pair some of the nibbles with the sake. They’ll describe a couple of the elements and then lead us: “Take a bite of this cheese and taste this here,” or vice versa. We’ll all partake together. Then we’ll move to the next element and partake of that together. I think there will be four things to try.
I need to note there will be mocktails and nonalcoholic options. They have a featured nonalcoholic sake that has become very popular lately.
Brown: And all this happens from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 11 at the Metroplex Event Center in Rogers.
McElroy: That’s correct.
Brown: Tickets are $50 at RogersHistoricalMuseumFoundation.org.
McElroy: Yes, and we’re still looking for sponsors as well. That information is also on the website, or you can always send me an email at rhmfoundation.ar@gmail.com.
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