

Wander through the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home, where modest rooms reveal the humble beginnings of a future leader. The annual Watermelon Festival celebrates the town's famously enormous melons with quirky small-town enthusiasm that's genuinely infectious. Local diners serve Southern cooking with portions that suggest calories don't count in Arkansas. Colorful murals throughout downtown tell Hope's story with surprising artistic flair. Just outside town, Historic Washington State Park offers a preserved 19th-century village with costumed interpreters. Fair Park provides green space for contemplation, while Northside Park offers more active pursuits. Hope has produced three governors – a statistical anomaly locals attribute to something in the watermelons.

