Part 6
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 of promoters or reformers, that existed for a few years and then passed into oblivion. These are monuments to dreams that failed or prospered for a season and then passed out.
On the other hand there are numerous active enterprises in the hills such as Ted Richmond's Wilderness Library in Newton County, and the famed "School of the Ozarks" near Hollister, Missouri. Other projects have been built with broad business perspective such as the town of Bull Shoals. Churches have been successful in establishing permanent institutions such as the Sequoyah Assembly at Fayetteville and the Subiaco Academy in Logan County. Some projects with more than local interest were started by one person and completed by others.
The unique stone building called "The Castle," located at Inspiration Point in Carroll County, on U. S. Highway 62, six miles west of Eureka Springs, was originally the dream of a Texas inventor and oil man. In the 1920's, W. O. Mowers of Dallas selected this scenic point as the site of a palatial country home because of its comparative isolation and the view of White River 500 feet below. Being a world traveler, it reminded him of scenery on the Rhine River in Germany with which he was familiar, and he visualized the replica of an old German castle. The rock used in the construction of the building was quarried near the village of Beaver, five miles away. Each stone was cut to fit a certain place in the structure and was put together like a jigsaw puzzle. The living room was made 30 by 44 feet, with a huge fireplace at each end. Pointed rock covered the exterior, following an Egyptian plan of architecture.
After spending about $80,000 on the project the Texas man was unable to complete it. In 1932, the building and several hundred acres of land were purchased by Charles Reign Scoville, a noted traveling Evangelist, of the Christian Church. He completed the building and made it a regional center for evangelism and religious training. This scenic spot overlooking the river and the spacious valley was a great inspiration to the preacher-evangelist, so he named it Inspiration Point. This name has now become a permanent geographical feature. Mr. Scoville lived only a few years to enjoy his dream.
In 1938, Mrs. Scoville gave the property to Phillips University of Enid, Oklahoma, to be a Christian center where individuals and groups might come for spiritual refreshment, and for study and training. The project has made rapid growth during the fifteen years it has been operated as a service institution. It now has an assembly hall and dormitories where groups may come for a day or a week, or longer. As many as 100 persons may be cared for at one time. Rev. and Mrs. George P. Rossman are directors and managers of the project.
The big attraction at the present time at Inspiration Point is the Fine Arts Colony held for six weeks each summer. It is directed by Professor Henry Hobart, of Phillips University, and provides instruction in music (piano, organ, voice, theory, band and orchestra instruments), drama, speech and painting. The opera workshop produces a light opera each summer, which is taken on tour after having been produced locally.
Groups begin coming to Inspiration Point in April and continue until November. Tourists are welcome at the Castle at all times of the year and they come by the thousands to see its unique construction and to view the articles of antique and historical interest left by Mr. and Mrs. Scoville. The view of the White River Valley from "The Point," which includes the ranch of Dr. and Mrs. Ross Van Pelt, is one of the finest in America.
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 months at the Chautauqua Hotel, later moving to a cottage on Linwood Avenue. It has been said that no greater admirer of scenic beauty ever came to the Ozarks than William Wrigley.
His greatest pleasure was to get out on the trails on horseback with Sam Leath, then acting as guide in charge of the Eureka Springs Bureau of Information and the Crescent stables. A canyon five miles west of the city was named after him for this was one of the spots he especially enjoyed.
The chewing gum king, whose net income was $1,125,000 in 1904, took a liking to Eureka Springs and proposed to buy all the land within a radius of three miles of the city and make it into a public park if the city authorities would agree to keep it policed and free from junk and garbage. The hills and valleys were then covered with vast growths of virgin timber which Mr. Wrigley wished to preserve. But the city government turned him down and he went to Catalina Island, off the California coast, where he spent millions in development. Many noted writers such as Zane Grey and Mary Roberts Rhinehart located on the island as a result of his project.
Another famous visitor was the landscape artist, F. S. VanNess who came to Eureka Springs from Chicago in October, 1902. Sam Leath took him on twenty-eight rides within two weeks, observing the splendor of the Flaming Fall Revue, but the artist did not paint a single picture. When Mr. Leath asked him why he did not paint he replied that the color was beyond his reach; that it would be an insult to the Creator to try to put it on canvas. Later, after the color had faded, he returned to the Ozarks and Mr. Leath guided him over the same route. This time he painted profusely, both landscapes and items of human interest. Two of his paintings may be seen today in the lobby of the Basin Park Hotel. One portrays a group of gamblers seated around a table, the other is that of old Dr. Messick on his burro which was painted in November, 1902. Dr. Messick was a retired Chicago doctor who "went native" and spent his last days living and practicing medicine in the hills near Eureka Springs.
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 vines and red berries that tinge the cheeks of the hills with romantic blushes. It seems a land of divine favor and it is indeed fitting that the early pioneers of the thirties and forties found here, in a temple not built with hands, the ideal place to worship God. Under a giant ledge overlooking Hog Scald creek they held worship for more than three-quarters of a century.
The sturdy people who trekked into these hills from Kentucky and Tennessee were the salt of the earth in character. And like their Puritan and Cavalier sires, they did not forget to give thanks to God for the Promised Land of the Ozarks. The visitor who loiters for a season in this Eden of beauty will realize, a little, the influence of such an environment upon these sturdy pioneers who had their feet deeply set in the soil of mediocrity, so far as learning is concerned, but who saw the thumb prints of God in every work of nature.
The spacious natural shelter below Auger Falls on Hog Scald creek attracted these settlers as a suitable place to hold religious services. Here was an auditorium on one side of the stream with pulpit of rock for the minister, and choir stalls for the singers, in a convenient shelter opposite.
Between audience and minister was the immersion pool where the rites of baptism could be administered without leaving the sanctuary. The drone of falling water from Auger Falls was just loud enough to be the grand piano divine, never out of tune, always doing its part to make the service effective. When the minister prayed, these musical waters seemed to echo, "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye and buy and eat--without money and without price."
In later years Hog Scald became an active community center. It was a meeting place of the settlers for such activities as butchering hogs, canning wild fruits and making sorghum molasses. The idea originated during the Civil War when the entire valley was a Confederate camp. The inviting springs and cozy shelters made it an ideal camp site. The shut-ins at the elbow of the falls now called Fern Dell offered opportunity to hem in herds of wild hogs and kill them in a cove convenient to the butchering grounds.
Hog Scald creek secured its name from the practice of soldiers in scalding the wild hogs in the kettle-like holes in the rocky creek bed. The water was diverted from its regular course into these holes, which are four or five feet deep and averaging six feet in width. The method of heating the water to the scalding point was done by dropping hot stones into the pits. The hogs were then immersed in the hot water until their hides were soaked sufficiently for the removal of the hair with a knife.
When the war ended, natives of the community continued this practice and enlarged upon it. Families would drive many miles through the hills to camp at Hog Scald, butchering hogs, canning wild fruits, and enjoying a few days of social contact. And always there was church on Sunday. The young folks might play party games on the rocks Saturday night, but the fun ceased at midnight. Sunday was set aside for the good things of the soul.
It has been said that the mills of the gods grind slowly, but the results of grinding are sure. The customs of these sturdy pioneers of the Ozark hills have borne fruit in a sober, righteous and contented people. Who can doubt the influence of this quaint sanctuary of nature in the lives of these hillfolks?[20]
A number of tall tales have been told about Hog Scald. An old-timer told Vance Randolph that he lived near there in the early 1880's. He said that there used to be a bramble thicket near the potholes, where the road is now. "We used to get the water good and hot," he explained, "An' throw the hogs in alive. They'd jump out a-squealin', an' run right through them bramble bushes. The thorns would take the bristles off slicker'n a whistle, so we didn't have to scrape 'em at all."
Another tale about Hog Scald was told to me recently. It is said to have happened about the turn of the century. The lay of the land is pretty rugged in the Hog Scald neighborhood and one farmer had planted corn and pumpkins on a steep hillside above the hollow. He said he did the planting with a shotgun, shooting the seeds into the hillside. About the time the planting was completed one of the farmer's brood sows wandered away and he didn't see her all that summer. When it came time to harvest the crop that fall, the farmer climbed the hill, holding on to the corn stalks and pumpkin vines to keep from falling. The pumpkins were so big that it took only about a dozen to cover an acre. In pulling himself up, he accidentally tore a pumpkin loose from its bearings and it started rolling down the hill. At the foot of the hill it hit a low ledge of rock and burst open. Much to the farmer's surprise, out jumped the lost sow and thirteen pigs.
I was telling that story down in the Basin Circle Park at Eureka Springs one day. When I got through one of the old-timers asked me if I had ever heard of the big kettle the blacksmiths built at Eureka Springs in the year 1901. I told him that I had never heard of it. "Well," he said, "it was some kettle. It was so big that the men working on one side couldn't hear the men hammering on the opposite side." I pretended to be astonished and asked him what on earth they wanted with such a big kettle. "Why," he said, solemn like, "to stew them Hog Scald pumpkins in."
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 past. A little later the white clematis appears and wraps the whole town in beauty. Hundreds of varieties of flowers, reflecting all the varied hues of Nature's prism, are here from early March until late November.
The tree lover in Eureka Springs has a wealth of beauty for his enjoyment. The elms and maples are the first heralds of spring to coax the bees into action and open Nature's wooing season. Then comes the sarvis, wild plum, redbud, and dogwood to add perfume and color to the fantasia of spring. In early May the long, purple, bell-shaped flowers of the Paulownia trees hang from bare branches.
The Paulownia or Princess tree is a native of Russia and named for the Princess Paulownia, daughter of the Czar, Paul I, who died in 1801. Its fruit is a green pod as large as a walnut which ripens in autumn and bursts open in winter to loosen the feathery seeds for the wind's dispersal. The broken pods cling to the tree until pushed off by new growths the following season.
The Ginkgo is one of our rarest trees. We have four of them in Eureka Springs, three on the Post Office grounds and one, a "female" tree producing fruit, on the property adjacent to the Sweet Spring park. This tree, of Chinese origin, is said to be the oldest tree in history. Botanists tell us that the fern is older than the tree. The Ginkgo with its fern-like leaves appears to be a link between the two. The fruit matures in late summer and has an offensive odor. The seed is bitter, but it is said that the Chinese roast them as we do peanuts and use them for food.
Other interesting trees in Eureka Springs are the tulip with its colorful bloom in May, the catalpas that flower in June, the magnolia and holly which retain their green leaves throughout the year, the cedar and pine, the mulberry with its artistic leaf, a buckeye or two, a lone fir on the Annie House property, a "smoke tree" at "the Little House Around the Corner," and a dozen varieties of oaks. The black gum and hard maple wear gorgeous colors in the "Flaming Fall Revue" and have a high rating of popularity.
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. 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. New scientific discoveries for combatting disease influenced the attitude of the people toward water as a cure-all and many health resorts folded-up as a result of this policy. Eureka Springs held on tenaciously but found it necessary to stress recreation along with health in order to survive. As a combined health and pleasure resort it weathered the depression although business was at low ebb for a number of years. Houses were torn down and the lumber shipped to western Kansas and other sections of the country. Crescent College closed its doors in the early thirties and a few years later the Crescent Hotel was discontinued. The building was bought by Norman Baker in the late thirties and opened as a hospital. But this institution ran into difficulties and was closed two or three years later. The Crescent, which had been opened as a hotel in 1886, remained closed during World War II but in 1945 Chicago business men bought the property and remodeled the building. 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. Civic improvements included paving the streets, the voting of bonds for revamping the sewer system, the sinking of a deep well to secure an adequate water supply, and the erection of an ultra modern public school building. Several of the churches of the town have repaired their buildings, or built new additions, and improved their facilities. 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. Since this business is seasonable, a few small industries are needed to provide pay rolls and help balance the economy. Writers, artists and craftsmen find this the ideal location for their activities.
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.
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 diameter. The depth is unknown. Soundings have been made, once in the nineties, the old-timers say, with strong bed cord attached to a 125 pound anvil, and again near the turn of the century by a party of engineers who let a 16 pound hammer down 512 feet. Neither weight reached bottom. The pressure of the water was sufficient to defy penetration into the blue depths.
The water taken from this spring is clear, white and transparent as plate glass, but the water in the spring is blue in appearance. Sometimes it is almost indigo in hue, but when taken out of the spring is white and transparent. A geologist who tested the water recently expressed the opinion that it is glacial water similar to that of Lake Louise in the Pacific Northwest. It was the opinion of some of the old-timers who lived near the spring that the water came from Kings River twenty miles to the east. When this stream was on the rise, the spring had increased flow, so they said.
Many legends have been handed down about this famous spring. One of them is that Spanish adventurers who supposedly invaded the Ozark country in the latter part of the eighteenth century, sunk a mine shaft at the present location of Blue Spring. They walled the shaft with logs. Several hundred feet down they struck an underground river and a geyser-like eruption occurred. Then it settled down and became a peaceful river with the old mine shaft as an outlet. The pioneer English settlers named it Blue Spring because of the blueness of the water.
This spring was once the site of an Indian encampment, according to Sam A. Leath who is an authority on Indian lore in the Ozarks. The cliffs had hieroglyphics to tell the story, but most of them have been erased by the hand of time. Numerous arrow heads and Indian relics have been found in the vicinity. The historic "Trail of Tears" over which the Cherokees trekked, passed near Blue Spring.
The pioneers saw economic possibilities in this vast flow of water and built a dam a few hundred yards below the spring near where the spring branch enters White River. A flouring and saw mill, operated by a turbine, was built on that spot. But the mill is now gone and only the turbine remains. Plans were once made to pipe the water to the railroad some three miles away and ship it for drinking purposes. No analysis of the water is available, but it is said to be soft and pure.
The dam below the spring forms a moss-lined lagoon that is a picture out of the book. Rainbow trout sport in the crystal water to test the angler who tempts them with his lure.
Blue Spring with its 400 acres of enchanted woodlands in a horseshoe bend of White River is owned and operated by Mrs. Evan Booth, formerly of Chicago. She lives in a picturesque modern cottage overlooking the spring and lagoon and keeps the project open the year around as a tourist attraction.
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 Ozarks do the hills lift their flinty shoulders to the sky in more picturesque form than in the vicinity of Eureka Springs.