Eureka Springs, Arkansas

“ Claude A. Fuller began practicing law in 1898 and has been closely connected with the business interests of the town since that date. Mrs. Annie House, “the oldest newspaper woman in Arkansas,” came to Eureka Springs as a child in 1880. Sam A. Leath, our guide and historian, has had an active part in civic affairs since 1898. He has been connected with the Chamber of Commerce for many years. Jim Bradley, Joe Porch and Tom Walker are all old-timers who continue in business. ”

“ LEGENDS OF THE MAGIC HEALING SPRINGS
Legendary lore concerning the visitation of northern Indian tribes to what is now Eureka Springs, Arkansas is badly mixed and it is difficult to separate truth from fiction. It is difficult to prove the authenticity of a legend. The stories we hear may have original pedigree or they may be mere fabrications by imaginative writers. In history, we have something to tie to, but this is not always the case with traditional lore that is handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. ”

“ One of the first blows to the local economy of the town was the removal of the railroad shops in 1911. This stopped an important pay roll which the town needed to balance its economy. No other industries have been developed to take its place.
For a number of years Eureka Springs was the outstanding watering place, not only in Arkansas, but throughout the entire midwest, but after the turn of the century other resorts became prominent and offered stiff competition. ”

“ Louis & San Francisco Railroad to Eureka Springs, a popular health resort in Northern Arkansas, surrounded by some very beautiful scenery that spreads away through the Ozark and Boston Mountains in picturesque grandeur, diversified by swift-flowing streams, deep gorges, terrible bluffs and immense caves that are gorgeously embellished with gigantic stalactite and stalagmite formations. If these magnificent scenes were not so conveniently near a large city, they would be a hundred-fold more famous, for it is human nature to yearn for the least accessible and the most difficult of attainment. ”

“ In no other city on the continent can there be found a street railway that leads such a winding course around and up and down the mountain-sides as does the Citizens Electric Railway of Eureka Springs. As you alight at the depot of the St. Louis and North Arkansas Railway you find a well-equipped street car there in waiting, and presently you are swung up and around the mountain side along what appears to be a ledge or precipice, and to the timid, it seems that in each instance there is danger of the car being hurled to the valley below. ”

“ The social life of the community is enriched with many cultural and recreational activities throughout the year.
We have a modern post office building with Cecil Walker as postmaster. Carroll County is one of the nine or ten counties of Arkansas that have two county seats. It has courthouses both at Berryville and Eureka Springs. Our courthouse is secondary but represents the western district of the county and has offices for both county and city officials, a court room, and a jail which is vacant most of the time.
Modern comforts and conveniences make Eureka Springs a pleasant place to live. ”

“ In the yard of the Missouri and North Arkansas railway at Eureka Springs, the wood in its once sturdy wheels so decayed they provide a very wobbly support, stands a muzzle-loading cannon, so old that few in this community know its history, or how it came to be in the depot yard. ”

“ There is a transient population of thousands of visitors during the year. The city is built picturesquely on the sides of a gulch, down which runs the Missouri & North Arkansas railway. A creek running through the city empties into the White river, only a few miles distant. The surrounding country varies in character from mountains to rolling prairie. ”

“ The Leatherwood and White River country was sparsely settled with hunters and timber workers who did a little farming to supply the table. The Arkansas-Missouri state line divided the settlement and everything went well until two men got into a dispute over the ownership of a cow. One of them was a farmer living in Missouri, the other was a doctor living across the line in Arkansas. ”

“ While there seems to be no system of State Forests in Arkansas and camp sites therein for the motor camper, Arkansas abounds in beauty spots, in mineral springs, and mountains where the camper is welcomed and where he may camp delightfully. Campers find attractive camping sites which may be freely used at such places as the city of Little Rock, Eureka Springs, Mena, Mt. ”

“ The section between Cotton Plant and Helena was revived as the Helena and Northwestern Railroad. It started operations early in the year. The trackage between Harrison, Arkansas and Seligman, Missouri became the Arkansas and Ozarks Railway. Two Diesel engines were purchased for this 65-mile line. Trains carry carload shipments only and the amount of business regulates the size and frequency of trains. The sections between Joplin and Seligman in Missouri and from Harrison to Cotton Plant have been junked. ”

“ Hog Scald, ten miles south of Eureka Springs is an undiscovered country, so far as tourists are concerned, but for riches of tradition and excellence of scenic beauty it cannot be surpassed in the Ozark highlands. It is a land of clear, gushing springs, laughing brooks and tumbling waterfalls; water everywhere, spilling over rocky ledges and twisting happily through granite-lined canyons. It is a land of massive oak, stately pine and verdant cedar, of purple grapes that cling to broad leafed vines and red berries that tinge the cheeks of the hills with romantic blushes. ”

“ Places of interest to tourists include: Onyx Cave, Inspiration Point, The Castle, Blue Spring, Quigley’s Castle, Pivot Rock and Natural Bridge, the Ozark Museum, Hatchet Hall, Birdhaven, the Bracken Doll Museum, the Old Rock House, the springs (63 of them) , the Basin Circle Park, Harmon Playgrounds, St. Elizabeth Church, the views from East Mountain and the top of the Crescent Hotel, the Narrows, Beaver, White River, Kings River, Hog Scald, Penitentiary Hollow and Revilo Ranch.
Eureka Springs has two bath houses and a modern hospital. ”

“ Our facilities for housing and entertaining tourists will have to be enlarged. The population of Eureka Springs should gradually increase during the next few years. With the most scenic location in the Ozarks, with flowing springs such as other towns do not have, with nearness to two lakes with the best of fishing and water sports, it is not extravagant to visualize the population of Eureka Springs as doubled within a few years. ”

“ Eureka Springs has had its ups and downs through the years with a leveling off toward normalcy since the mild boom following the war. With Table Rock Dam on White River assured, and Beaver Dam farther up the stream a possibility, the outlook for the future is bright. The town will continue as a combined health and pleasure resort, an art and retirement center, a literary mecca, and a haven for hobbiests. It is developing a festival atmosphere which has the earmarks of permanency. ”

“ The town has many magnificent buildings and substantial enterprises, including the Sanitarium Company, which has grounds near Eureka Springs and is doing much in the way of improvements. The beautiful scenery in every direction fills the visitor with astonishment not to be described with the pen. ”

“ People began coming in large numbers during the late summer and this immigration increased during the fall and winter. By July 4, 1880, an estimated 5,000 people were living in the community and the sound of hammering could be heard day and night as new buildings were put up.
During the first few weeks, the Basin Spring was the center of attraction, but it was not long until the other springs in the vicinity were discovered and used. Streets had to be laid out and the first project was Main Street. H. S. Montgomery, with the help of twenty men, opened up the valley in August, 1879. ”

“ THE COW TRIAL ON LEATHERWOOD CREEK
During the half century before Eureka Springs was settled and named in 1879, settlers trekked in and built homes in the valleys and along the streams of the western district of Carroll County. ”

“ It opened as a hotel with Dwight Nichols as manager in June, 1946. It is now one of the town’s greatest assets.
Eureka Springs had a mild boom at the close of the war. Home-seekers poured in, bought homes, entered into business or went into retirement. A number of motels and other business enterprises were built and a community began a new epoch as a resort. The population increased from a depression low of about 1,700 to around 3,000 in 1954, counting the suburban areas. ”

“ Claude A. Fuller. He has always had the interests of his hometown at heart and his leadership is outstanding. Born in Springhill, Illinois January 20, 1876, he came westward with his parents when a young lad and, at the age of fifteen, settled at Eureka Springs. His first job was with pick and shovel at Sanitarium Lake, now Lake Lucerne. When the street car line was constructed from the Auditorium (now Harmon Playgrounds) to the Basin Spring, he was employed as waterboy. ”

“ Business buildings have been enlarged and improved and many new homes built. The tourist season now opens in April and continues until November with a few winter visitors. It is estimated that about 150,000 tourists visit Eureka Springs during the year. Some make only brief stops, others stay two or three weeks for rest and recreation.
Eureka Springs has become a popular retirement city and the people of this class add substantially to the town’s economy, but the bulk of the revenue is from the tourist trade. ”

“ It has two printing plants, one of which publishes the Eureka Springs Times-Echo and prints Rayburn’s Ozark Guide. The volunteer fire department has a new truck and modern equipment, and the city police force is adequate for local needs. The town has modern motels and cafes, most of which remain open through the year. Outstanding antique and gift shops are located here. Practically all lines of mercantile business and services are represented at Eureka Springs. ”

“ A crazy quilt is made up of pieces arranged without pattern or order. Eureka Springs is like that. It is an architectural labyrinth unique among cities. The recently built annex of the Penn Memorial Baptist Church has a home for the minister on the third floor. You may enter at the street-level door on Mountain Street, walk through the rooms—a distance of about forty feet—and look down upon Owen Street, thirty feet below. ”

“ One basic legend that appears to be a part of most of the traditional accounts is that of the carving of the basin at the Indian Healing Spring, now called Basin Spring. J. M. Richardson in a letter to Powell Clayton of Eureka Springs, dated May 18, 1884 at Carthage, Missouri, says:
“It was in the summer of 1847 when a conversation took place between White Hair, principal chief of the Great and Little Osage Indians, and myself at the office of the agency on Rock Creek (now Kansas) relative to lead in Missouri and a celebrated spring in the mountains. ”

“ In the Ozarks, newly married couples are usually “shivareed” by their friends. They are serenaded with bells and shotguns and other racket making devices and if the groom refuses to “treat” with candy and cigars, he is given an unconventional bath in the river. In some communities the bride and groom are driven around town in a horse-drawn vehicle or an old jalopy.
At Eureka Springs, it became a practice to have the newlyweds slide down the perpendicular rock near the spring. It developed into a tradition and even today honeymooners, others too, try the daring slide to prove their courage. ”

“ Our chief difficulty is in providing sufficient attractions to hold tourists more than a day or two. This problem must be solved or we will gradually fade out of the picture.
The building of two dams on White River, at Table Rock and at Beaver, will have a great influence on Eureka Springs’ economy. These dams will provide large lakes for recreational purposes. They will be within a few minutes drive of our city. We now have approximately 150,000 visitors a year but the average stay is only a day or two. ”

“ It was once a popular walk-way from the Sanitarium on the hill to Magnetic Spring. The winding “up way” from the foot of Mountain Street at the Baptist Church is a short cut to a private home called Mount Air. Taking this stairway reminds us of the tourist who asked a native Ozarker if he was on the right road to Springfield. “Well, not exactly,” he replied, “This road just moseys along for a spell, then it turns into a pig trail, then a squirrel track, and finally runs up a tree and ends in a knot-hole.” ”

“ Geographically, Eureka Springs is an “up and down” town. There are no level spots in the down-town area large enough for a baseball diamond or a circus tent. This problem has been solved, however, by bulldozing off the top of a mountain at the edge of town and building a stadium. We can now play the great American game and hope for the visitation of a circus. ”

“ The Carry A. Nation spring flows from a cave which the crusader used as an “ice box” during her sojourn in Eureka Springs (1908-11) . This cave has a constant temperature the year ’round and is an ideal natural refrigerator. In the days preceding artificial refrigeration, the East Mountain folks made use of Carry’s cave for storing milk, butter and other perishables. The water from the cave spring has been piped across the street to Hatchet Hall, which is now a museum and art center, owned by the artists, Mr. ”