ENVIRONS

the local color and points of interest page

"Eureka! I've found it!"

Eureka Springs History
http://www.eurekasprings.com/history/
http://www.travelthepast.com/SiteDetails238b.html?PK=1856

Eureka Springs is the city built on a bath house. In early spring, 1879, a hunting party to Arkansas discovered the curative benefits of the Basin Springs waters. A surge of people followed the news, to make camp around the springs and be healed. In less than one (1) year the area's population sprung into existence—from zero to some 12,000 souls. The town's name still bears witness to the exhuberance of those early pilgrims.

The rest of the story includes wealthy tourists, railroad development and saw mills; and four (4) major fires before 1900 which, depending on your point of view, either thwarted growth or kept it in check.

Carrie Nation, the notorious temprance crusader, spent the last few years of her life in Eureka Springs. The fact that we even know this reveals a town with a reaffirming derth of celebrity.