Recently, while conducting research for this Freehub Arkansas Photo Book, I learned about Bruce Walker, a man who owned Flying Possum Leather on Dickson Street in Fayetteville. During his nearly 35 years of running the business, Walker made custom sandals, guitar straps, and other leather goods, all while educating anyone interested about the physiological benefits of properly fitted footwear.

In 2011, he died in a fire at his store. Walker’s passing sparked an outpouring of love from locals who remembered him for his easygoing attitude and dedication to his craft. Area news outlets weighed in as well.

“An untold number of area residents walk around in the Birkenstock sandals he introduced to the area in the 1970s,” wrote Tony Hernandez in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette following the fire. “He was just part of Fayetteville—part of the heart of Fayetteville,” said Lis Agnitti, a friend of Walker, in a report by Rob Sneed from the local TV news station. “Flying Possum Leather was one of the last remnants of a Dickson Street that existed before the enhancement project. Before the Walton Arts Center. Even before some of you were born,” wrote Dustin Bartholomew in the Fayetteville Flyer.

The story caught my attention because it represents a changing Arkansas. Any mountain biker who has so much as glanced at our sport’s main media outlets in the past few years has undoubtedly seen news of northwestern Arkansas’ other “enhancement project”—something to the tune of 600 new miles of trail since the Waltons first started investing after they caught the cycling bug.

But trail stats are only a small part of any area’s fat-tire scene. People, of course, are what make things tick. As I read through old articles about Flying Possum Leather, it struck me that Walker seemed to embody so many of the same traits that members of our team noticed in the Arkansans who aided us in completing this photo book—kind, quirky, always ready to help. Riley Seebeck, a Freehub senior photographer who traveled to central Arkansas from the Pacific Northwest to help document the trail scene there for this issue, felt right at home after joining Cedric Bunting’s Dirt Vikings crew for a ride in Little Rock on his first day in Arkansas.

“It reminded me a lot of the Midwest; I felt that energy again,” Seebeck said of the group’s welcoming attitude, noting that everywhere he went, it seemed as though riders were either preparing for new trail projects, looking ahead to new initiatives, or planning new events. 

“They’re starting to get into this like, ‘OK, what is this going to look like? What is our [mountain biking] community going to look like? Who are the people we can look to for leadership? That was cool to be around. I was surrounded by nothing but stoke during my time there.”

If enthusiasm could be considered a measure of a place’s success, then Arkansas’ mountain biking future is almost as bright as the kind-hearted characters who live there.