Bentonville, Arkansas

The home of Walmart founder Sam Walton’s original five-and-dime store, Bentonville is more than just a big-box chain’s birthplace. Thanks in large part to the Walton family, it’s become a cultural hotspot.

Take the city’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as a prime example. Founded by Sam’s daughter Alice Walton, the elegantly designed complex features 217,000 square feet of exhibitions, as well as works by Norman Rockwell, Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol and Georgia O’Keeffe. It has even collaborated with the Louvre.

Bentonville is also home to the Museum of Native American History, contemporary art space The Momentary, the Scott Family Amazeum children’s museum and, of course, the Walmart Museum.

Unemployment in the area is just 6.3%, well below the national average — a likely testament to the massive 17,000-employee Walmart headquarters located there. Home prices are more favorable, too, clocking in at $244,000. — Aly J. Yale

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