May 20

Eureka Springs has been a tourist town since its inception back in 1879. As with other springs, the spring water here was considered a heath treatment both to drink it and bathe in it as the area was settled. Word got out quickly about its “healing” properties and by 1880, buildings started replacing canvas tents. Fires in the 1880’s destroyed most of the original buildings but new hotels, shops and restaurants quickly replaced them. The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places. This mountain village in the Ozarks has the largest collection of Victorian homes in the central US. A “doctor” came to town and touted the healing properties of the water for cancer. Eventually it came out that he was a fraud and landed in the penitentiary. We took a tram tour and got some of the history by a local guy that has spent his life here. Some of his personal stories and reminiscing added to out tour. We stopped at one of the lovely springs and at the grand Crescent Hotel high on the hill. It dates back to 1886 and lobby must have the original front desk. I bought a piece of art in the gift shop. We heard the Seeburg Style H Orchestrion play its honkey tonk music taking us back to the museum in Florida where we saw the special exhibit on player piano type instruments.

The Seeburg Style H Orchestrion at the Crescent Hotel

This is one of the lovely springs in town.
The gardens around the springs are lovely.

Basin Spring has always been the center of town. Tourists and locals alike still gather here. The spring water has been piped to a fountain.

Before our tour, we had lunch on the balcony of the Basin Hotel overlooking Spring Street with its shops and tourists. Over 200 artists call Eureka Springs home. We enjoyed looking in the galleries and shops. We haven’t done much of that.

This is the view from the balcony of the Basin Hotel.
What a darling town.

The other night we came into town for dinner and sat on the patio at Luigi‘s. We heard some good music from the bar across the street and headed over there after dinner. “Wagon Wheel“, “rock me mama” is part of the chorus, is a song we keep hearing in the bars in these parts and it has become a new favorite. We lucked out and it was their last song before they took a break.

Thorncrown Church was our last “must see” stop. This beautiful church rises to 48 feet and sits back in the woods. It is a natural for weddings. It has 425 windows with over 6,000 square feet of glass and rises 48 feet to the Ozark sky. The story goes that Jim Reed purchased the land in 1971. People would stop by his property to view the beautiful Ozark countryside. He decided that a chapel in the woods would offer visitors a place to relax in an inspiring way. Construction started in 1979, but he ran out of money half way through. Hard as he tried he could not raise money to finish and was just about to give up. He went down to the building site for one last prayer and a few days later got a phone call from a lady in Illinois offering to donate whatever funds were needed to finish the project. Jim opened the doors in 1980, and sure enough people from all over the world have enjoyed a relaxing moment or two in this beautiful chapel in the woods.

Thorncrown Church

Inside Looking Out