Circa 1910 postcard, captioned “A Native Hunter, Eureka Springs, Ark.”
Eureka Springs’ main tourist attraction was “taking the spring waters” which were thought to have medicinal value. Luxury accommodations were available and attracted upscale tourists to “The City that Water Built” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There was a Eureka Springs Gun Club and although local boosters didn’t promote hunting and fishing the mythic hillfolk were acknowledged as this postcard shows.
Probably there was more participation by the affluent visitors in horseback riding than hunting: “Large parties would ride far out into the country, have a prepared picnic lunch, and return to an evening of concerts, dancing, and in some cases, making the acquaintance of a member of the opposite sex of suitable social standing.” (See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image. Lens & Pen Press.) Local hunters likely did not return to “evenings of concerts, dancing” and flirting.
Missouri came by its moniker, The Cave State, honestly as many areas of the state are underlain by soluble carbonate bedrock, such as limestone or dolomite, that can be easily dissolved by water – a karst landscape. This creates the features we’re all familiar with—caves, springs, and streams that can ‘sink’ into the ground and resurface in another place.
See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image is available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.
