Johnny Cash's boyhood home in Arkansas set to open as a museum

Music legend's tiny boyhood farm to inject 6m a year into local economy 30,000-50,000 visitors expected annually after opening on August 16 Restoration has cultural value in showing how a typical colony family lived Dyess is 50 miles from Graceland so could benefit from traffic to Elvis' home

By Connie Allfrey

Published: 03:58 EST, 8 August 2014 | Updated: 04:10 EST, 8 August 2014

Johnny Cash's boyhood home is set to open its doors to the public on August 16, attracting up to 50,000 tourists a year.

Music aficionados already flock to the Dyess area of Arkansas to commemorate the Man in Black's death - even though there are few restaurants or country music dives to quench the thirst with a legal beer.

Now as part of a 3.3million project, the musician's simple clapboard home will welcome fans and give a glimpse into the star's childhood, which was spent with his family cultivating a small plot of land.

Cash's modest five bedroom family home is soon to open for tours - expecting 30,000-50,000 visitors annually

The five-room farmhouse has been restored to look just as it did, with new furniture conjured up from old photographs and diaries.

The new tours are expected to boost tourism in the area, bringing in around 6million to the local economy.

'So, that, for Arkansas, is quite significant' said Ruth Hawkins, head of Arkansas State University's Heritage Sites program and at the helm of the project.

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Johnny Cash's boyhood home in Arkansas set to open as a museum