Logoly State Park was dedicated as Arkansas’ first environmental education state park in the late 1970s. The state park now has another first to add to its educational mission. 

Logogly State Park, which is located at 131 Columbia Road 459 in Magnolia, is home to the first all-terrain wheelchair made available to the public at Arkansas State Parks. The program, which is being done in partnership with Accessibility Across Arkansas, is part of an initiative at Arkansas State Parks to enhance accessibility. 

The all-terrain wheelchair, which is made by Action Trackchair, has durable tracks instead of wheels and is designed to navigate rough terrain and help individuals explore trails previously inaccessible to those with mobility challenges.

Jennifer Biggers was the first user of the all-terrain wheelchair at Logoly State Park. Biggers, an outdoor enthusiast, first learned about the park’s Action Trackchair by Googling accessible parks in Arkansas. From that search she came upon Accessibility Across Arkansas’ website. 

“I got my first chair at 5 so I’ve been through a lot of chairs and a lot of experience with them,” said Biggers. “When I went to college I used a motorized chair. And then around 2015 learned about beach wheelchairs and some of those are regular chairs with big rubber tires. They are not power chairs that someone else pushes. And then we learned that they have power beach wheelchairs now. And so I’ve used those. A veterans program I had run across one time was my first exposure if you will to a Trackchair. I had never seen those kinds of wheels on one. But it is just so cool because there is not anything out there like that that allows you to get on that kind of terrain. And I love being out in the woods and hiking and so that just kind of allows for me to be able to do that.”

The state park is located around an hour from where Biggers was born and raised in Hampton. Typically when Biggers goes to a park, regardless of where it is, she has to usually stay on the concrete and follow the paved trails that are there. “So just being on the rougher terrain and some of the hills that I wouldn’t have been able to experience was pretty cool,” she said. 

The all-terrain wheelchair provided an outlet for Biggers to experience the park in a memorable way. “No matter what I have done I’ve always wanted to basically just do what everyone else does,” she said. “I think this just allowed me to experience some of those trails like I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do otherwise. And not only that but do it on my own, without someone having to push me or that kind of thing.”

Biggers mentioned she is appreciative of programs like this. “It is so cool as you get older and you have these new experiences and there are new innovative ways to make things more accessible and more inclusive,” she said. “I think that is what is so great about it.”

Reservations for the all-terrain wheelchair can be made through the Accessibility Across Arkansas website at accessibilityacrossarkansas.org/reservations. Please note that reservations need to be made in advance. Plans are in the works for all-terrain wheelchairs to eventually be available at Pinnacle Mountain State Park and Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area.

More about Logoly State Park can be found via this article and also via this Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry.