Eureka Springs

The park we stayed at was about 7 miles from Eureka Springs, a cute little Ozark town nestled in the mountains.  Even though it was seven miles, the road going to Eureka Springs was narrow, steep, and winding making for slow traveling.  It took us about twenty minutes to reach town.

This is the Christ of the Ozarks statue.  We took this picture from the Crescent Hotel in downtown Eureka Springs.  The statue was created in 1966 by one of the sculptors who had worked on Mt. Rushmore and is 65.5 feet high.

We took the tram tour through town and learned more about it.  During the Civil War,  Dr. Alvah Jackson established a hospital located on a spring he had earlier discovered and treated his patients, both Union and Confederate, with the waters.  The springs became well known and people began visiting the area in search of medical cures.

The town was incorporated on February 14, 1880 and promoted it as a retirement community for the wealthy.  In 1889, Eureka Springs was the second largest city in Arkansas, just behind Little Rock.  Today, there are fewer than 3,000 people living here.

It's always been a tourist destination and in the 1930's this Rock Cottage Tourist Court was a popular destination.

Eureka Springs is truly a Victorian town with houses throughout the town sporting this unique style of architecture.

There were small houses

and large houses.

This house even has two addresses.  The left side of the house is on one street and the right side of the house is on another street.

The Crescent Hotel was built in 1886 

and is perched on top of a hill overlooking Eureka Springs.

From the front steps of the hotel, you can see St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church, the only church you enter through the bell tower.

We walked through the bell tower and a flower lined walk takes you to the church building.

This was Basin Spring Bath House downtown still stands, but now has little boutique shops inside instead of being a bath house.  There is a wooden covered bridge in front that goes across the main street to the other side.

Here is the City Auditorium which was built in 1928 and the first performance was by John Phillip Sousa and his 67 piece band.

There is even a Carnegie Library located here.

This was one of my favorite buildings,  the Flatiron Building.  The original building was built in 1880, destroyed by fire in 1890, another was built and it too was destroyed by fire.  This building was built in 1987.

There was a mural depicting the history of the town.

Homes are built on the sides of mountains.  From the front a house will look like a one story home and when you look at the back you see another three or four stories behind it.

There was this whimsical Humpty Dumpty sitting on the wall.

After our visit through downtown, we stopped at the Thorncrown Chapel on our way back to the campground. 

Thorncrown Chapel was the dream of Jim Reed who owned this piece of property and thought if he built a glass chapel in the woods, it would inspire visitors.  It was designed by architect E. Fay Jones and it is absolutely inspiring on the outside

and the inside!

Another neat thing is that the lights inside reflect the cross on the window, making an illuminated light on the forested background.

Eureka Springs is a beautiful place to visit!