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The Eureka Springs Story
The Eureka Springs Story
BY Otto Ernest Rayburn DIAMOND JUBILEE EDITION 1954 Drawings by Gloria Morgan Bailey Original Printing by THE TIMES-ECHO PRESS Eureka Springs, Arkansas Second Printing, 1982, by Wheeler Printing, Inc. Eureka Springs, Arkansas To my friend SAM A. LEATH who has served Eureka Springs as guide and historian for more than a half century....
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I LEGENDS OF THE MAGIC HEALING SPRINGS
I 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. It m
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II THE STORY OF MOR-I-NA-KI
II THE STORY OF MOR-I-NA-KI
The tradition, that great healing springs existed far to the south of the land in which they lived, appears to have been wide spread among the Indians of the North in early times. Travelers, who visited these redmen in the early part of the nineteenth century, discovered legends that told of these springs and their miraculous cures. One of these travelers, Colonel Gilbert Knapp of Little Rock, Arkansas, while on an exploring expedition in the copper-mining region of Lake Superior, met a French h
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III “THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH”
III “THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH”
Legend says that healing springs in a far-away land were known in Asia 2,000 years ago and that the tradition was later carried to Europe where it captured the imagination of certain gentlemen in Spain. L. J. Kalklosch gives a report from contemporary writers as follows: “Before the Christian era, one Ferdinand Levendez, who was in the Roman service for a time, made the acquaintance with a barbarian prisoner by the name of Malikoroff, from whom, in the course of their chats, he learned the story
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IV THE DISCOVERY OF THE INDIAN HEALING SPRING
IV THE DISCOVERY OF THE INDIAN HEALING SPRING
The man largely responsible for the starting of a town at “the springs” in Carroll County, Arkansas was a pioneer doctor named Alvah Jackson. He was a man of many talents. He not only practiced medicine but was also a great hunter and trader. In 1834 he was shipping bear oil down the White River from Oil Trough in Independence County, Arkansas. The town of Jacksonville was named in his honor. During his hunting trips and trading expeditions into the hills, the doctor contacted many Indians. They
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V THE STORY OF MAJOR COOPER[8]
V THE STORY OF MAJOR COOPER[8]
Major J. W. Cooper was a plantation pioneer in Texas. He had taken part in the Revolution of the forties and then settled down to grow cotton and raise cattle on his vast acreage. Sometime before the mid-century he made a trip to northwest Arkansas and spent some time exploring a section of what is now Benton and Carroll counties. He liked the country, observed the vast stand of virgin timber, and decided to locate there. In 1852 he sold his Texas holdings and started the long trek north. The tr
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VI THE COW TRIAL ON LEATHERWOOD CREEK
VI 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. The region was popular with hunters because of the abundance of game. The virgin timber attracted men who set up peckerwood sawmills to supply the pioneers with building material. It was a rugged environment of hills and hollows and the settlers matched the mountains in which they lived. Many stories are t
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VII THE NAMING OF THE TOWN
VII THE NAMING OF THE TOWN
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote Shakespeare, but we doubt if any other name for Eureka Springs would fill the bill. It was old Archimedes of ancient Greece who first used the word EUREKA as an exultant expression and started it on the road to fame. The story goes that King Hiero assigned Archimedes the job of finding out the amount of alloy in his golden crown. The old mathematician was puzzled about how to do it for his laboratory was rather inadequate for scientific rese
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VIII THE CITY IN EMBRYO
VIII THE CITY IN EMBRYO
Eureka Springs was named on July 4, 1879 and it was a boom town from the start. Within a year there were an estimated 5,000 people living near the springs. L. J. Kalklosch tells about this phenomenal growth in the book he published in 1881. “Little did Judge Saunders think in May, 1879, when he went with his wife and son to camp in the wilderness, miles from anything in the form of a permanent dwelling place, where the wild animals dwelt unmolested except when disturbed by an occasional pioneer
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IX JOHN GASKINS—BEAR HUNTER
IX JOHN GASKINS—BEAR HUNTER
Among the pioneers who settled in the vicinity of the Indian Healing Spring before the town of Eureka Springs was founded was the Gaskin family who located on Leatherwood Creek in 1856. “Uncle Johnny” as he was affectionately called by his friends, was one of the famous bear hunters of the Ozarks and he left a record of his hunting adventures in a booklet entitled, “Life and Adventures of John Gaskins in the Early History of Northwest Arkansas.” This little book, published at Eureka Springs in 1
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X “WATER PACKIN’ DAYS”
X “WATER PACKIN’ DAYS”
The first settlers at Eureka Springs considered the water from the Basin Spring to be a potent agency for healing and rejuvenation. Judge J. B. Saunders, one of the first to try the water, gave this report: “In five weeks I lost thirty-three pounds in weight and forty odd pounds during my stay, and felt that I had been fully renovated, or made new, and was as active then and now as I ever was in my life. I will also add that from the frequent bathing of my head in its waters, and the improved co
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XI THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD
XI THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD
The “CASEY JONES” legend of railroad lore does not tie up with the turbulent history of the North Arkansas Line, but the two episodes do have a far-fetched parallel. If trouble is a weld of incident there is a connection between the two. The wreck of No. 382 of the Cannon Ball Express at Vaughn, Mississippi, on May 1, 1900 brought Casey into railroadana’s hall of fame, but the North Arkansas Railroad, now the Arkansas and Ozarks Line, experienced almost continued trouble during its first 60 year
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XII THE JAMES BOYS ON PLANER HILL
XII THE JAMES BOYS ON PLANER HILL
Legend connects Frank and Jesse James with this locality in a humorous episode that is not mentioned in the biographies of these famous outlaws. These men sometimes rode into Arkansas and it is reported that they had an uncle who operated a tavern at the stage stop on Planer Hill, before the town of Eureka Springs was started. It is quite probable that they sometimes “put up” with their uncle when they considered it safe to do so. We have no historical records about their visits here for outlaws
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XIII HIGHLIGHTS OF HISTORY AND FOLKLORE
XIII HIGHLIGHTS OF HISTORY AND FOLKLORE
Judge Saunders of Berryville completed a cabin near the Basin Spring on or about July 4, 1879. A grocery store with a $200 stock was opened by O. D. Thornton on July 6th. By the end of July there were twelve crude dwellings perched on the hillsides near the Basin Spring. The population increased slowly during the first few weeks after the naming of the town. A count was made on August 10 and it totaled 180 permanent residents. People began coming in large numbers during the late summer and this
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XIV THE CAPTURE OF BILL DOOLIN
XIV THE CAPTURE OF BILL DOOLIN
It was during the winter of 1895-96. Bill Doolin, the Oklahoma outlaw was spending his “vacation” in Eureka Springs, taking the baths and hiding out from the law. He had allegedly killed three marshals at Ingalls, Okla., a short time before and committed other crimes over a period of several years of outlawry, and the law was hot on his trail when he disappeared at the first of the year, 1896. Bill Tilghman, United States marshal, knew Doolin personally and set out to capture him. At a boarding
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XV STORIES IN STONE
XV STORIES IN STONE
According to the information on the pictorial sign board in the Basin Circle Park, Eureka Springs has fifty-six miles of retaining walls. Several years ago an old-timer told me he figured that the walls of this town, if put end to end, would reach a distance of forty miles. No one has taken the trouble to measure these walls so one guess is as good as another. In addition to the walls, a large amount of stone has been used in the construction of hotels, homes and business buildings. 60,000 cubic
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XVI THE SPRINGS
XVI THE SPRINGS
There are forty-two springs within the corporate limits of Eureka Springs. Most of these belong to the city and are included in the municipal park system. A few are privately owned such as Ozarka in Mill Hollow, Congress, Lion, Carry Nation and Cold Spring on East Mountain. Sam A. Leath has counted and named sixty-three springs within a one-mile radius of the center of town and it is said that there are about 1200 springs in the Western District of Carroll County. The Basin Spring, so called bec
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XVII THE LAY OF THE TOWN
XVII THE LAY OF THE TOWN
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. This sounds like an architectural fairy tale, but it is true. Houses are b
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XVIII THE STREET CAR SYSTEM
XVIII THE STREET CAR SYSTEM
Eureka Springs at one time had the most unique street car system in the nation. It began as a mule car line in 1891, but was electrified seven years later. It remained in operation until 1923 when it was crowded out by jalopies which invaded the town. The streets were not wide enough to accommodate both the street car and the Model T. The total length of the line was about three miles, but the two terminals of the main line were only half a mile apart. The entire system was a single track with t
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XIX CARRY A. NATION
XIX CARRY A. NATION
Carry A. Nation was a militant voice in the “wilderness of sin” at the turn of the century. Her three hatchets, which she named “Faith, Hope and Charity,” cut deeply into the liquor industry. Not that the liquor she destroyed in her attacks on bars and saloons amounted to a great deal, but her influence in fostering nation-wide prohibition was far reaching. She spent considerable time in jail and paid numerous fines, but this did not lesson her enthusiasm for the cause to which she devoted her l
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XX A BANK ROBBERY THAT FAILED
XX A BANK ROBBERY THAT FAILED
On the night of September 26, 1922, five men were camped in the woods on the hill near where the Mount Air Court is now located, well hidden from the traffic on U. S. Highway 62. Sitting around the camp fire were Si Wilson, Marcus Hendrix, a 21-year-old Indian, a man named Cowan, and the two Price brothers, Charlie and George. They were desperate Oklahoma outlaws from the Cookson Hills, remnants of the old Henry Starr gang. Their business at Eureka Springs was to rob the First National Bank. Sit
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XXI INSPIRATION POINT
XXI INSPIRATION POINT
The Ozarks is a land of dreams. Some of them succeed, some fail. Traveling through the hill country we find numerous ruins of partially built projects, that reveal the urge of man to build and perpetuate. “Coin” Harvey’s Pyramid at Monte Ne, the Kingston Project in Madison County, the old Chautauqua Assembly at Sulphur Springs, the numerous old hotels at once-popular watering places, ghosts of a past era when the water cure was a national fad, social and cultural colonies, the lengthened shadows
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XXII DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
XXII DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Eureka Springs has had many distinguished visitors during its seventy-five years of history. Some of them made only brief visits to our scenic city while others spent several weeks and returned from year to year. One of them who thought of Eureka Springs as an earthly paradise was the chewing gum king, William Wrigley, Jr. Mr. Wrigley first visited Eureka Springs in 1902 and put up at the Thatch Hotel where he spent most of the winter. He returned in the autumn of 1903 and spent about three mont
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XXIII HOG SCALD
XXIII HOG SCALD
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 vin
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XXIV BOUNTIES OF NATURE
XXIV BOUNTIES OF NATURE
“Never have I found a place, or a season, without beauty,” wrote the poet, Charles Erskine Scott Wood. The scenic charm of Eureka Springs is a challenge to the poet’s pen and the artist’s brush. Each season has its own style of beauty that helps erase monotony from man’s benighted world. Spring comes with myriad flowers. The lilac and the honey suckle spill their perfumes lavishly on the hill and in the valley. Early summer spreads a carpet of sweet peas that have escaped from gardens in years p
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XXV “UPS AND DOWNS”
XXV “UPS AND DOWNS”
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 town has had its share of economic problems which it has managed to solve satisfactorily. It has been temporarily down, but never out.
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XXVI THE STORY OF BLUE SPRING
XXVI THE STORY OF BLUE SPRING
I came, I saw, I concurred that Blue Spring is one of Mother Nature’s miracles. It was a quarter of a century ago when I first visited this lovely spot, located seven miles northwest of Eureka Springs. Since that time I have been a frequent visitor to this liquid giant from the unknown. Blue Spring is the outlet of a subterranean river with a constant flow of about 38,000,000 gallons of pure water daily. It rises straight up from its mysterious bed, forming a circle about seventy feet in diamete
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XXVII SCENIC ATTRACTIONS
XXVII SCENIC ATTRACTIONS
One of the great attractions of Eureka Springs as a tourist resort is its scenery. In both the city and the adjacent countryside we have folds of hills that please the eye of the observer and captivate his fancy. “I will look unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” The hills and hollows of the Western District of Carroll County have been a lure for tourists for three-quarters of a century. Combined with the springs of pure water, this scenery is perhaps our greatest asset. No where in the Oz
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XXVIII THE BASIN PARK HOTEL
XXVIII THE BASIN PARK HOTEL
The Daily Times-Echo of Eureka Springs on April 24, 1905, carried the following announcement: “The first grand opening of the Basin Park Hotel, now nearing completion, will take place July 1, and the event promises to be one of the grandest in the history of Eureka Springs. T. J. Brumfield, under whose management the Hotel Wadsworth has been so successful, and who has earned the reputation of being one of the best caterers in the South, has been selected as manager for this splendid hostelry, wh
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XXIX THE CRESCENT
XXIX THE CRESCENT
Although upon a summer day, You’ll lightly turn from me away, When autumn leaves are scattered wide, You’ll often linger by my side. But when the snow the earth doth cover, Then you will be my ardent lover. This homely verse, carved in stone above the fireplace in the spacious lobby of the Crescent Hotel, is a reminder that comfort is an outstanding feature in a hotel. In this “Castle in the Air High Atop the Ozarks” we find comfort combined with convenience in a big way. This magnificent hostel
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XXX HOTEL HISTORY
XXX HOTEL HISTORY
Eureka Springs entertains 150,000 or more tourists annually and it has need of numerous hotels, motels and courts to provide adequate housing for these guests. During its seventy-five years as a resort, it has had more than 100 establishments of this class. One of the first of these hotels was the St. Charles on North Main Street, opened by Powell Clayton in 1882. It was first called the Clayton House. The Grand Central was opened in 1883. Two years (1884-1886) were spent in building the Crescen
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XXXI “BACKWOODS BARON”
XXXI “BACKWOODS BARON”
In my opinion, the man most closely associated with Eureka Springs in a business and political way during the past half century is the Hon. 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
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XXXII WRITERS AND ARTISTS’ MECCA
XXXII WRITERS AND ARTISTS’ MECCA
Eureka Springs probably has more writers than any other town of its size in the nation. Since World War II an astonishing number of books have been authored by residents of the “Stair-Step-Town.” Some of these writers have been producing novels, short stories, feature articles and poetry for a quarter of a century; others have appeared only recently on the literary horizon. Vance Randolph, Ozark folklorist, is the author of fifteen major books and hundreds of pamphlets and feature articles. His
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XXXIII THE OLD AND THE NEW
XXXIII THE OLD AND THE NEW
Time marches on and not many of the men and women of the pioneer eighties are with us today. Among those who are native born or who came in their youth when the town was a booming spa are: Mrs. Annie House, Jim Bradley, Mrs. Fred West, Mrs. Wilma Jarrett Ellis, Mrs. C. A. Fuller, Mrs. Louis Haneke, Mrs. May S. Miller, Mrs. Chrystal Lyle, Wallace McQuerry, Otis McGinnis, Joe Hoskins, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Porch, Sam Riley, E. A. Jordan, Tom Walker, Walter Burris, T. L. Hawley, Mrs. Claude Pike, Charli
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XXXIV UNUSUAL ENTERPRISES
XXXIV UNUSUAL ENTERPRISES
One of the treasured thoroughfares of Old Eureka Springs was the foot bridge which spanned the canyon at the rear of the stone building, now the Sweet Spring Apartments. The south terminus of this unusual structure was at the rear of Jim Black’s shoe shop. It was a short cut to the business section on Spring Street in the vicinity of Sweet, Harding and Crescent Springs. The original Sweet Spring was in the hollow at the rear of the post office to the left of the bridge. This spring was tapped hi
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XXXV THE OUTLOOK
XXXV THE OUTLOOK
We have had a long look at the past and a peep at the present. What of the future? In my opinion, the outlook for Eureka Springs is good. We have a problem, but its solution is not impossible if we have faith in the town as the founders had. The big problem of Eureka Springs is to operate successfully on a strictly tourist income and meet the competition of other Ozark resorts. We hear complaints that the season is too short and the tourist patronage too light. The town was originally intended a
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