Indian Legends and Victorian Bath Houses: The History of Eureka Springs

The Arkansas resort town of Eureka Springs is a faux-Victorian tourist trap with plenty of attractions today. But dinner theaters and the knickknack shops are a natural outgrowth of a lengthy history as a holiday destination reaching back into the Americans.

Eureka Springs has, unsurprisingly naturally occurringsprings, that have been thought to be possessed of healing powers. Back in 1856 European settler called Dr. Alvah Jackson chose the Indian celebrities at their word used some of the water from Eurekas springs to treat an unspecified eye disease suffered by his son. His sons recovery and the disease cured was attributed to the spring-water. This resulted in the founding of Dr. Jacksons Cave Hospital, where many young men were treated with Eurekas spring water during the American Civil War, and the subsequent Dr. Jacksons Eye Water business post-bellum.

In 1879 Judge J.B. Saunders, a friend of Dr. Jacksons, seen with the Basin Spring at Eureka, where he was supposedly cured of some kind of degenerative disease. Thrilled by the upturn in his health, the influential judge began promoting Eureka Springs nationally. Before the conclusion of the year the town of Eureka Springs was home to 10,000 individuals, and it was the city in Arkansas.

Eureka Springs became famous. On Main Street The Basin Spring Bath House was built in 1889; it was 4 stories high, with a bridge into the 2 stories providing housing for your water pipes along with arching over the road. The 1901 Palace Hotels bathrooms featured steam-heating, electric lights and an electric lift in each area, making it the reverse of the century equivalent of a 5 star resort, also used water in your Harding Spring. At these and other Bath Houses visitors may slip from their marriage suits to get a cold or hot or bathtub, a massage or various kinds of bathrooms air, electric, treated, luminous, vapor plus much more. Today, the Palace as well as the Basin house are still standing.

Since the 20th century began to receive its bloody, iron wheels turning up to speed, interest in mysticism began to wane, and this included the belief. The springs began to be than the event, and the majority of the Bath Houses shut.

But Eureka Springs suspended in there, adapting with the times, to remain among Arkansas premier tourist destinations. Sure, nobody comes to be healed, but they are to get hitched. Eureka Springs is now the Las Vegas of the Ozarks as it has to do with quickie marriages (no blood test required), with over 4,000 weddings occurring there each year. Additionally, there are a lot of shopping opportunities for people that shop to enjoy. For the faithful its worth the trip to Eureka Springs to gaze called Christ of the Ozarks that soars above the town. Eureka Springs has been packing them in for much more that 150 decades. Why people will visit in 150 more, who will say?