When considering retirement, there is no better place than Mountain Home, Arkansas.

With the southern hospitality afforded newcomers to this big town with a small town feel, Mountain Home in the Arkansas Ozarks, offers the finest place to retire. That may be why the 11,000-member community today is inhabited by many whose first visit to the 'Natural State' may have been drawn by its reputation as a vacation paradise. It doesn't take long to realize that if a week or two in Mountain Home is enjoyable, living there is better.

Mountain Home offers affordable real estate and low taxes, with a cost of living far less than other areas of the country. It consists of a healthy mix of seniors and young families. Crime is low. Activities abound. And the scenery around Mountain Home is as picturesque as a piece of art with its abundance of creeks and streams, and the Ozark hills covered with hardwood forests that seem to hug the city.

The county seat of Baxter County, Mountain Home is a blend of traditional Ozark charm and the progressive modern. It has all the amenities. Shopping is more than adequate with availability from everything from antiques and Ozark treasures to household furnishings and other everyday needs. Dining out includes a range from fine restaurants and steak houses, to the local McDonalds and many other fast food places. Medical services are abundant. The Baxter Regional Medical Center, which serves fourteen counties in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, is located in Mountain Home. It is also home to the beautiful campus of Arkansas State University Mountain Home on the south side of town.

Mountain Home is nestled between two huge, crystal clear, man-made lakes - Bull Shoals Lake and Lake Norfork. The lakes were created by dams on the White River built just over fifty years ago for flood prevention and to generate electricity as part of the Southwestern Power Administration. Bull Shoals dam, for example, is one of the five largest concrete dams in the U.S. The lakes provide the potential for fishing, swimming and all types of water recreation. Yet, surprisingly, when the dam was first proposed as a practical solution to the annual spring floods, its creators had no idea of the valuable recreational potential of the lakes, which is now seen as one of the biggest assets of the entire region.

It is no wonder that Mountain Home has been featured in various magazines and as recently as 2005 when an article in the Wall Street Journal called it one of the country's best places to retire. Fishing magazines have highlighted Mountain Home, where the world record brown trout was caught in 1992 on the North Fork of the White River, near Mountain Home. The spectacular fishing is varied due to the warm waters of the lake where anglers can get their fill of small and large mouth bass, crappie, bluegills, and walleye. Brown and rainbow trout are among the varieties caught in the cold waters of the river.

Affordability, recreation, friendly people, and an abundance of nature make Mountain Home an excellent place to settle.

Learn more about this author, Carol Henrichs.
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