A cross country course was developed by the University of Arkansas on land at the university’s Agricultural Experiment Farm.
The university’s cross country team had become a national powerhouse by the 1980s under the coaching of John McDonnell, but through the 1970s and 1980s, its home courses were set up as hoc using available open land, such as golf courses and even the Prairie Grove Batllefield State Park.
Developing a home course meant Arkansas could host conference and regional championships on its home turf.
The course at the Agri Farm is not a set single route but a variety of loops around various plots of land used for research — from pasture species to golf turf to cotton. The differing distances of the loops that can be tagged together to create specific longer running distances such as 6 kilometers or 10 kilometers.
The course is used for college, high school and junior high meets as well as the perennial Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival each fall.