I've never lived in Arkansas, but I spent 26 years in Oklahoma and 9 of them were 45 miles from border of northwest Arkansas. I now work remotely for the same company but I visit the area and I spent a combined 2 weeks in NW AR through May and June for work (my main project right now is for Walmart). I've been visiting Siloam Springs which is a pretty typical small border/truck route town and is nothing special, but when I have a free evening I'll run over to Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers/Bentonville to find decent food and drink.
I have a pretty awesome place in Colorado so it would take a lot to persuade me to move, but if the circumstances fell into place I wouldn't hesitate to move to the northern part of the state (the conditions my wife and I have talked about are if I got paid enough to have a similar house on 80+ acres with a creek or pond
). It's gorgeous, rolling hills alternating between lush pasture and dense forest. When I lived in Oklahoma we would often go over to Arkansas, get a VRBO in the woods somewhere and go hiking and check out caves. Also when I rode motorcycles I'd go to Fayetteville for "Bikes, Blues and BBQ" which is a great people watching opportunity
.
The people are super polite and friendly. I kinda took it for granted when I lived out there but coming back after moving west it's noticeable.
Housing ought to be pretty cheap...the 1978-built house I live in now cost over double the brand new (2013) house I had built in NE OK on a similarly sized lot a similar distance from a similarly sized town.
The beauty fades in the winter because of the high concentration of deciduous trees, but it comes back in the spring and summer. The heat and humidity are a little shocking when I go back because I'm used to a daily average high of 81 in July with single digit humidity. The craft beer scene is a few years behind but it's getting better.
You won't see as much national forest as you're probably used to in Oregon, and I'm not sure how much 4 wheeling there is to do. The terrain would be great for it, I just don't know where the trails are.
I've seen a lot of people recommending Tennessee; I've spent some time in Nashville and Clarksville (right across the border from Ft Campbell, Kentucky) and I'm not sure I would know the difference, geographically or culturally (obviously the country music scene in Nashville notwithstanding).