Part 5

In the early days, Harding Spring ranked next to Basin in importance. It has supplied the Palace Bath House with water for bathing for almost a half a century. It flows from a picturesque cliff on Spring Street with a rock projection called Lover's Leap a few feet away. It is one of the most photographed spots in Eureka Springs.

Congress Spring at the rear of the Congress Spring apartments is "honey out of the rock" for those who like top quality aqua pura. It comes from a cave and is said to have been discovered by workmen while blasting rock on Spring Street. Standing at the spring one may look skyward and observe a street seventy feet directly above. The rock formation at this point is a miniature Gibraltar.

Crescent Spring, between the Carnegie Library and Presbyterian Church, derived its name from the large crescent-shaped ledge of rocks over which it originally flowed for a distance of fifteen feet. It is now walled in stone and sheltered with a pointed roofed pagoda.

Continuing on Spring Street, Grotto Spring "on the boulevard" is next. It has a picturesque position in the mountain side, fronted with a lane of sycamore trees. The spring was named because of its location in a natural stone grotto.

On East Mountain there is water almost everywhere. Some of the best known springs, each with its individual scenic setting, are: Cave, Little Saucer, Big Saucer, Little Eureka, Onyx, Carry Nation, Soldier and Cold. Cave spring, near the home of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Ward Dresbach, flows a stream of pure cold water from a narrow cave. Little Eureka has a small stream and never goes dry. This spring is known for the purity of its waters (5½ grains of solids to the gallon) and many people swear by it. It is said that Little Eureka water won second place in a world wide contest at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. Water from a spring in Switzerland won first.

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. and Mrs. Louis Freund.

Onyx Spring comes from a cave in which onyx was once secured for making jewelry. It was formerly called Laundry Spring because of its popularity as a place for washing clothes. A sarvis tree now grows from the rock directly over the spring.

Soldier Spring is at the entrance of a small cave at the west end of Nut Street on East Mountain. According to legend, two bushwackers were killed at the entrance of this cave by federal soldiers during the Civil War. A bushwacker is an outlawish fellow who hides behind a bush and takes a "whack" at you with his rifle gun. In this instance, the soldiers got the first whack and the stream from the cave was named Soldier Spring. For several years the large oak tree across the road from the spring was a natural bee tree and a swarm of honey-makers occupied it each season. Not many modern towns can boost of a bee tree within the city limits.

In Mill Hollow we have the famous Ozarka Spring, the only Eureka Springs water that is commercialized. It is shipped in glass or enamel-lined railway cars to many cities in the mid-west. Ozarka is a liquid treasure from nature's vast laboratory. Other springs in the vicinity are Little Ozarka, Minnehaha with its Indian legend, and the Bancroft Springs.

Magnetic Spring is one of the most popular springs in the city. The water was once thought to be radio-active and old-timers claimed it would magnetize a knife blade. It is a popular place for picnickers and the city has provided a shelter-house with tables, barbecue pit and other facilities. Magnetic Hollow has other springs such as Mystic, which flows from a picturesque cliff, and Bell Spring which makes a musical sound like the tinkling of a bell. An iron and sulphur spring was once located near the railway depot, but is not now flowing.

To the west and south of the city, within walking distance, are the famous Oil and Johnson springs and sixteen springs that feed the city lake that supplies the municipal water system. A bathhouse once stood under the cliff between Johnson and Oil Springs. The oil spring is peculiar in that the waters have an oleaginous feeling when rubbed between the hands. It was once considered beneficial in diseases of the scalp.

Lion Spring flows from the cliff near the back door of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Wheeler, publishers of the Eureka Springs Times-Echo. For many years the Lion Spring Hotel, operated by "Mother" Belden, was located on this site. A stone Lion's head is set up as a dispensary and the water flows through its mouth. This spring once supplied a stream of water for Dr. Alvah Jackson's primitive bathhouse in the rock shelter fifty feet below. A wash-tub was secured from a sugar camp on Keel's Creek and this, with half-a-dozen canteens, constituted the outfit of the first water-cure establishment in this part of the state.

Calip Spring is on South Main Street near the Elk's Club. It supplied the community watering trough in the early days of the town. Fishermen now use this trough as a depository for minnows. Gadd Spring is farther north on Main Street and is housed in a rock edifice made from crystal and other odd-shaped rocks.

In regard to the springs at Eureka, L. J. Kolklosh wrote in 1881:

"No other springs in the world have had so many cures and such a reputation in so short a time as the Eureka Springs of Arkansas. History does not record an equal.... Eureka had made a name that has been heard throughout Christendom."

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 built like that in this Switzerland of America. In many homes the street entrance is on the second or third floor, or the house may be reached by a stairway clinging to the mountain side. One business house is surrounded by streets like a moat 'round a castle and it has four street addresses each on a different level. In the early days when the town was thronged with health seekers who wanted homes near the springs, terraces were built and hemmed-in with massive stone walls. Houses were constructed on these terraces with stairways leading from one level to the other. Frequently a natural cave opens at the backdoor. The yards and gardens have the appearance of "The Hanging Gardens of Babylon," built by Nebuchadnezzar for his hill-loving queen. Some residents may step from their gardens to the roof of the house while others must climb stairways to their patch of vegetables.

The first lawsuit in Eureka Springs, according to the old-timers, was caused by a woman who lived in one of these terraced homesites. She carelessly threw dishwater out of the backdoor and down a neighbor's chimney, damaging the furniture.

Vance Randolph tells about a drunken farmer who was found in the streets of the town one Saturday night. The pavement is not level by any means and the poor farmer was walking with one foot on the sidewalk and one in the gutter. A woman came along and the fellow called on her for help. "You're just drunk," she told him. "Is that it?" he said, much relieved, "My gosh, I thought maybe I was crippled."

Eureka Springs is laid out with 238 named streets with no direct cross intersections. (One or two right-angle crossings have been found since Ripley featured this item in his "Believe It or Not.") On the map the streets look like a bewildered maze with the letters U and V formed fifty-one times, the letter S thirteen times, O, seven times, and perhaps other alphabetical curiosities in this labyrinth of streets. There are five street levels on West Mountain from Main Street in the valley to the Crescent Hotel on Prospect Avenue.

Many exaggerated tales have been told about this "crazy quilt" town. There is the fellow, for instance, who doesn't need a picture window in his house to observe the scenery. He merely looks up the chimney and watches his neighbor drive the cows home from the pasture. And don't forget the well digger who was digging a well on East Mountain. When down about forty feet the bottom of the well fell out and he landed (on his feet) right in the middle of Main Street. They had to change their plans and dig the well up instead of down in order to strike water.

Eureka Springs has only two business thoroughfares, Main Street in the valley from Planer Hill to the railroad station, and Spring Street which branches off of Main at the City Auditorium and winds around the mountain to the Crescent Hotel. Once, in the early days, a feud developed among the merchants on Main (then called Mud Street) and they built a high board fence right down the middle of the street. This made the traffic lanes so narrow that a wagon could barely squeeze through. The fence was soon removed by order of the city authorities. Spring Street is lined with flowing springs--Sweet, Harding, Congress, Crescent, Grotto, and Dairy on the Harmon Playgrounds, once the site of the old auditorium. This street was engineered by Governor Powell Clayton (they always called him "governor") who helped dress up the town in the early eighties. Sweet spring was "moved" from the hollow behind the post office to its present location on the Spring Street level.

In addition to the street layouts, other believe it or nots in the city are the Basin Park Hotel, "eight floors and every floor a ground floor," the St. Elizabeth's Church, "entered through the steeple," and Pivot Rock, sixteen inches in diameter at the base and thirty-two feet across at the top. The hotel stands against the side of the mountain with its street level door on Spring. It is bridged from the rear to paths on the mountain side at four different levels. The "steeple" of the church is in reality a detached bell-tower. It is on the Crescent Grade level and steps lead down to the church which is set on a terrace held in place by a twenty-foot wall. A rock can be tossed from this terrace to the roof of the Carnegie Library about one hundred feet below on another street. The travel distance between the two locations is about one-fourth mile.

The numerous stairways of wood and stone, connecting street levels, have given rise to the name, "Stairstep Town." Cora Pinkley Call used this title for her book on Eureka Springs, published in 1953. Some of the leading stairways are: Jacob's Ladder, Sweet Springs, Magnetic Spring Skyway, and the "upway" from Spring Street to Eureka Street. Jacob's Ladder is a series of wooden steps up East Mountain from the Main Street level to the Skydoor residential district on the mountain side. Rest stops are provided along the way in the form of seats where the old may rest and the young, perchance, do a little courting. The Sweet Spring steps are of stone and they lead from the spring, through the tree tops, to the terminus of two streets three hundred yards above. The Magnetic Spring stairway is at the junction of Main street with Magnetic Drive, reaching up to Hillside (Depot Grade). These steps are now covered with moss and seldom used. 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." If you take this stairway and path to the upper street, turn to the left and follow the path around the mountain, you end up at the rear entrance to the fourth floor of the Basin Park Hotel.

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 three passing switches. The track was standard gauge and placed near the curb at one side of the street, as the streets were too narrow for center tracks.

John T. Brown, writing in "Trolley Sparks," says that the Citizens Railway Company of Eureka Springs had a total of twelve cars, five of which were closed cars operated by one man, six two-man open cars, and one work-car which was also used as a party car. Except for two of the cars, all were originally mule-drawn cars purchased second hand from Houston, Texas. These cars were motorized with second hand electrical equipment purchased from the Detroit Street Railways. In 1904, two new summer cars were obtained from the St. Louis Car Company.

The Daily Times-Echo in the twenty-fifth anniversary issue of April 24, 1905, says:

"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. But really such a possibility is very remote, for during all the years the line has been in operation there has never been a serious accident. To make safety doubly sure, the far-seeing management has had guard rails laid all along this section of the line. From the depot up the mountain side to the intersection with the main line at the Crescent Spring, a little more than half a mile, the ascent amounts to a fraction over 101 feet, or a little more than 200 feet to the mile. The main line, which circles around West Mountain, traversing the most popular thorofare of the city and passing most all the famous springs and principal institutions, is not without its grades and wondrous curves.... At the Auditorium (now the Harmon Playgrounds), the track commences a most charming and tortuous ascent, and a feat of engineering that has challenged the admiration of many scientific men who have visited the resort. A roadbed had to be graded around the mountain side at angles that would seem ridiculous were it anywhere else than in this unusual mountain range. One car will be only a few yards from and above the other, and apparently going in the same direction when actually, they are headed toward opposite ends of the line. These ends, however, are only 300 yards apart, one end resting in the valley while the other is at the mountain's peak. From the Crescent Hotel to the Auditorium there is a descent of 140 feet.

"The equipment and service on this street railway is better than can be found in many cities of far greater population than Eureka Springs, and the entire system is a source of gratification and pride to our people. Visitors make the valley echo with their merry shouts as they are carried around its course in the beautifully decorated and lighted trolley party cars, and the bands and orchestras of the city are frequent participants in these festivities."

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 life. Carry hated liquor, tobacco, rouge, lip-stick, and immorality in all its phases. She operated under the unwritten law which, she thought, superseded man-made legislation. Even some of the churches did not condone her radical ways and closed their doors to her. But she organized her own.

Carry married twice; first to a young fellow in Cass County, Missouri, who called himself "doctor." He was addicted to drink and Carry could not reform him so she left him and returned to the home of her parents. He died shortly after their baby was born. Her second marriage was to David Nation, a lawyer, newspaper man, and later, a Campbellite preacher. This marriage fared better than the first one but it was not a happy affair. Carry cut the swath for the family and David had to string along as best he could.

Carry Nation's militant crusades against the liquor traffic began at Kiowa, Kansas about 1900. After "cleaning up" the town to her satisfaction she turned her face toward Wichita. She met with considerable opposition in the big town and her raids landed her in jail, but friends paid her out. At Topeka she used the hatchet for the first time in her raids.

After a few years of raiding and smashing she went into chautauqua to lecture on temperance. She made a speaking tour in Europe in 1908 and landed in jail in Scotland where she had to serve the full sentence. (The Scotch did not like to see their whiskey spilled). In 1909, at the age of sixty-three, she bought a little farm near Alpena in Boone County, Arkansas where she spent a part of her time during the year that followed. Then she selected Eureka Springs as her retirement home and purchased a two-story frame house on Steele Street which she named Hatchet Hall. She decided to start a college at Eureka Springs for the teaching of temperance. She called it the Carry A. Nation College and erected a frame building near her home for class rooms. But the college did not last long for in 1911, while making a temperance speech from a buggy in the street in front of the Basin Circle, she had a stroke, and died a few days later. Her body was taken to her girlhood home at Belton, Missouri for burial.

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.

Sitting around the bed of coals this September night, the outlaws discussed their plans. Charlie Price, the leader, did most of the talking. He outlined the plan for the robbery on the morrow at 12:05 P.M. when practically all business houses would be closed for the lunch hour. Hendrix was to remain in the car at the front of the bank, ready for a quick getaway.

"I guess you fellers know what you're doing," said Wilson, who had recently joined the gang. "But don't forget what Sam Lockard and Henry Starr said. They warned you that Eureka Springs was a deathtrap."

Price laughed and said that it would be easy because everything was well planned.

"We'd better hit the hay and get some sleep," said Charlie. "Big day tomorrow." As he rolled into his blankets he remembered to wind his watch. He turned the stem carefully in the darkness but fate took a hand and a little extra pressure sent the hands around one revolution without his knowledge. His faithful old watch had played a trick on him.

At exactly 11:05 A.M., mistaken by the bandits to be 12:05 P.M., a car drove up in front of the First National Bank on Spring Street. Hendrix remained at the wheel while the four others entered the bank. The story of the robbery and its tragic aftermath has been told in newspapers, by Horace H. Brown in Startling Detective Magazine, and by Cora Pinkley Call in her book "Eureka Springs--The Stair-Step Town."

Members of the bank staff on duty on September 27, 1922, were: Tobe Smith, cashier, Fred Sawyer, teller, Mrs. Maude Shuman, Miss Loma Sawyer and Miss Jewel Davidson. Customers in the bank when the robbers entered were: Sam Holland, Robert Easley, John Easley and Luther Wilson. Others who walked in while the holdup was in progress were: John K. Butt, Claude Arbuckle and Bob Bowman, clerk at the Basin Park Hotel.

Tobe Smith saw the four men enter the bank and when they drew their guns he stepped on the burglar alarm which had connections at the Bank of Eureka Springs, a block up the street, and the Basin Park Hotel, the same distance in the other direction. The robbers did not know this but lined up the occupants of the bank, face to the wall, and proceeded to scoop up all available cash and bonds. While doing this Charlie Price noticed the clock on the wall. The hands stood at exactly 11:10 A.M. Time had played its trick.

In the meantime the alarm had caused a furor of excitement in town, and C. E. Burson of the Bank of Eureka Springs had sent a bullet from his pistol that punctured a rear tire of the bandit's car. Young Hendrix, getting excited, started the car slowly down Spring Street but a bullet struck him as he reached the junction with Center Street and he turned the car into a railing at the head of a stairway. He was captured without offering resistance.

By this time the four bandits had left the bank with the money in a sack, taking two of the bank employees as hostages. They knew they would have to fight their way out and sought to escape down the stairway by the Times-Echo office which leads to Center Street. Guns were popping and bullets flying everywhere. Si Wilson was killed instantly, George Price died a few minutes after being taken to Dr. R. H. Huntington's hospital, Charlie Price died from his wounds a few days later.

Cowan was wounded. He and Hendrix were sentenced to terms in the state penitentiary.

Eureka Springs citizens who battled with the outlaws were: Ernie Jordan, Joe McKimmey, Jess Littrell, Robert Bowman, Homer Brittan and Sam Harmon. The story of their courage in defeating this desperate gang without loss of a man was told in newspapers throughout the country. None of them were wounded except Ernie Jordan who received a powder burn in the face. F. O. Butt, Eureka Springs attorney, was president of the First National Bank at that time. He had his office over the bank building. He was glad to see the sack of money and bonds returned without loss. It had been dropped on the Center Street stairway during the fight.

XXI INSPIRATION POINT