The National Cold War Center has acquired $1.9 million from the State of Arkansas. The contribution will aid ongoing efforts to make the center a major Delta tourism destination by sharing the unique history of one of the most pivotal conflicts in history.
The $1.9 million allocation came in August in the form of a legislature-approved one-time distribution of restricted reserve funds to the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism's Division of Heritage requested by Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s administration.
“We appreciate the substantial investment that the State of Arkansas has made in the National Cold War Center and Mississippi County,” said Mary Gay Shipley, chair of the National Cold War Center Board of Directors. “The state’s contribution will allow the center to continue to move full-speed ahead towards becoming one of the world’s premiere cultural institutions from right here in the Arkansas Delta.”
The National Cold War Center site is located on the campus of the former Blytheville Air Force Base (originally known as the Blytheville Army Airfield), which opened in 1942 as a training facility for World War II pilots. In 1958, the base was converted to a Strategic Air Command alert mission and remained a key U.S. military command for three decades – through events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the signing of the treaties that officially ended the Cold War in the early 1990s.