A last word about Eureka Springs, Arkansas

First of all, you can get a brief history of Eureka Springs HERE.


People came to Eureka Springs hoping the curative waters would heal their ills.  The springs there were very cold, so the water was heated before the people got into it.  Drinking the water was also supposed to fix what ailed you.  

On our tour, we went by the Grotto spring.  The tour guide said he wasn't sure who actually turned it into a grotto, but I'm betting the city has something to do with it.

This is outside the grotto spring, and it doesn't look to me like the work of some random residents of the city.  

The springs, by the way, have all been closed so people can't access the water.  All except one, which you could get to with great effort and take a drink.  At some point it was decided it might be unsafe to drink the spring water and the city didn't want to be held liable for someone dying from its effects.  There are water fountains outside some of the springs which some tourists probably think is spring water, since it's right there by the spring and there's no indication it's anything different.  But it's Eureka Springs' city water which comes from Beaver lake.  

Many years ago all the springs were at street level, but now you have to go down a flight of stairs to get to any of them because they built up the streets to a higher elevation way back when.


This Saturday Cliff and I will be participating in a tractor cruise.  We'll get on the massive Oliver 1855, drive to Lexington on it, meet with others from Cliff's tractor club, and then parade twenty miles to Higginsville.  Once we meet the group at Lexington, I have to ride on a trolley with some women I don't know whose husbands, like mine, didn't put "buddy seats" on their tractors.  The rules state the driver can only have a rider if he has rigged up a special seat for her.  I am not as enthusiastic about this whole thing as Cliff is, but it might make a good blog entry, so wish me luck.