Real photo postcard, circa 1920. “Taking his medicine in the Ozarks, Anderson Missouri.” Note the long gun on the ground by his feet. This hunter was thirsty!
The spring-fed creeks and of the Ozarks were promoted in tourism literature from the beginning. Claims were made that additional benefits came from bathing and drinking from the pure waters flowing throughout the region. These met with less success than the promotions of Eureka Springs, which had extensive infrastructure to accommodate upper middle-class travelers. Even when there was widespread faith in the healing properties of spring water, Eureka’s gracious accommodations, fine food, shopping, and sightseeing edged out other health resorts at Heber Springs and Sulfur Springs, Arkansas and DeSoto, Missouri.
There were claims, as this postcard shows, that you could quench your thirst drinking from a surface stream. Even back then, we suspect that was not always a good idea. Ozarks creeks and rivers were clear and relatively unpolluted, and promotion of river fishing was justified, but drinking directly from a stream would have been perilous.
Image courtesy of Lens & Pen Press. See The Ozarks: The Touristic Image, with an extensive section on Eureka Springs, is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $22.50 (10% off retail price of $24.95), postage paid.