Things To Do In Fort Smith

After a 20-year career in the air national guard, Britton Shaw still couldn’t get enough of the sky. So, he founded River Valley Paragliding to share his passion with new students. Whether soaring over local river bottoms or catching gusts of wind from atop Heavener Mountain, he performs and oversees solo and tandem flights, giving his charges hands-on experience in the air.

Lokomotion Family Fun Center paves the way for friendly competition and family fun in a multi-attraction complex filled with arcade games, mini golf, laser tag, go-karts, and bumper boats. Feed fistfuls of tokens ($0.25 value each) into a multitude of games to shoot hoops, smack air-hockey pucks, and recklessly race virtual cars without being grounded for hitting the neighbors' mailbox. Take aim at sibling rivalries during black-light laser-tag games or spray down peers in the bumper-boat pool. Thirty-six mini golf holes border an Illinois River tributary, setting a beautiful scene to knock grandma off the top of the family standings. Four different go-kart tracks separate racers by age with single-seat pro-track cars for licensed drivers and double-seated family-track cars that liberate backseat drivers.

Founded in 1985, Theatre Arts, Inc. has continued to honor its core mission of supplying Oklahomans with performance education and opportunities. Within a newly renovated 10,000-square-foot facility, students train tapping toes in more than 10 styles of dance—including tap, jazz, and hip-hop—and channel their inner thespian in acting classes or private lessons that focus on both improvisation and script work. Private instruction and classes also accommodate vocalists who receive personalized tips on stage presence from the faculty and practice harmonizing by singing duets with humming radiators. Numerous alumni have harnessed their training into careers, working locally and nationally on television and Broadway, and two—Lauren Nelson and Shawntel Smith—have gone on to become Miss America.

As a basket drifts against the twilight, the only sound one can hear is a burner whispering to invisible gas, commanding it to push the carriage higher into the evening sky. At Go Hot Air Ballooning, flights stay close enough to the ground to witness deer wandering the earth, and each excursion—from private rides to tethered convoys—takes off with passengers' well-being in mind. An FAA-licensed pilot with more than 20 years of ballooning experience—and a perfect safety record—takes the helm of each flight, personally confirming each reservation and watching up-to-date weather reports to ensure safe flight conditions. Though the in-air portion lasts only an hour, most journeys take up to four hours in all, allowing passengers to witness such behind-the-scenes action as the pilot inflating the entire balloon with his lungs.

If you ask an engineer what a bridge is made of, he or she might say steel and concrete. But if you ask the owners of Broken Arrow Roller Sports, the response might be polished floors and wheels. The facility doesn't construct bridges, per se, but it is in the business of connecting things–albeit families, friends, and different generations altogether. Groups find a common interest in gliding across the roller-skating floor, which Broken Arrow surrounds with a host of other activities that includes an arcade, a snack shop, and free Wi-Fi. The rink also rents itself out for private birthdays, enabling party hosts to invite as many guests as they want and avoid having to instill the one-in, one-out rule that dominates most other birthday parties.

Broken Arrow Lanes facilitates pin-crushing revelry throughout the week with youth and adult leagues and open-bowling hours on 36 lanes. Flat-screen televisions suspended above each lane display players' scores and heated debates between news pundits and teleprompters. The alley also envelops a pro shop, a redemption-based game room, and a full-service dining area, where patrons can snag handheld meals such as burgers, sandwiches, and pizza slices but not bowling balls.