Mystic Springs Captured By Gray Bros. View Artists

 Beautiful Ozarks, Lens & Pen Press, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Jul 252025
 

Throughout the United States are scenic spots where subterranean waters surface. Attaching “mystic” to the place name is not uncommon and evokes their poetic charm. Eureka Springs, Arkansas has two. This detailed cabinet photograph, circa 1900, by the local photographic firm, shows one of the springs still in its natural state. The second spring, Mystic Blue Springs (not illustrated) today is a deep pool enclosed by a concrete circle. It’s often just called Blue Springs.

Eureka Springs is an authentic Victorian village built on the sides of some of the Arkansas Ozarks steepest real estate. One hundred years ago nattily attired ladies and gentlemen strolled miles of winding paths, pausing to sip the waters of the various springs. Each was held to have singular medical properties.

The myth that spring water would cure cancer or gout has long been debunked but fanciful geologic and aboriginal histories remain about the place. In a Nov. 19, 1959, feature The Helena Daily (Ark) Daily World advanced the absurd theory that the spring waters of Eureka come from the glaciers of the Pacific Northwest in Canada. In that same article, Indian hieroglyphics carved in the limestone ledges of Eureka were said to describe visits from Desoto and Daniel Boone. Mythology aside the article ends with a paragraph that does justice to the continued attraction of the area:

As one walks about in this colorful wonderland, the silence of the woods predominates all conversation. A restful contentment prevails in this, the first home of the Ozark Indian. Here it is easy to know: “nothing in nature is altogether separate, the cooperation and attitude of the woodlands desires a complete pattern of loveliness.”

Vintage Images is a column we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication.  Lens & Pen Press publishes all-color books on the Ozarks. Our book, “See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image,” showcases many of the primary tourist destinations across the Ozarks. It is available for $22.50 (10% off retail), postage paid. Click on Buy our Books

FERN SPRING – EUREKA!

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks, Tourism, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 082025
 

Each spring in the vicinity of Eureka was held to have a particular medicinal power. Eureka Springs called itself “The City that Water Built.”

EUREKA SPRINGS PROMISED ITS SPRINGS HAD HEALING PROPERTIES

No rusticated place this. Improbably built into the side of some of the Ozarks’ steepest real estate is an authentic Victorian village. One hundred years ago, nattily attired ladies and gentlemen strolled miles of winding paths along hand-cut stone wall, pausing to sip the waters of the various springs. … “The city of healing waters—there’s health in every glass,” was only one of many taglines for the city’s promotional literature. Stories of the diseases cured by Eureka’s springs fall flat now, but the boasts of the place’s overall attractiveness hold up. As one brochure proclaimed:

“The lure of the Ozarks and the all-year charm of Eureka Springs as a place of restful enjoyment is not alone for those who journey in the quest of health. The country surrounding Eureka Springs is a great shaded park and playground, a land of hills and valleys arched with translucent blue on its many cloudless days.” (See the Ozarks, p. 14)

Twenty-first-century tourists are considerably more casually dressed than these two gents. Few today (we hope) believe the spring waters will cure anything but the thirst that comes from touring “the stair step town” on foot.

Vintage Ozarks is a feature we provide to River Hills Traveler, a monthly publication. Lens & Pen Press publishes all color books on the Ozarks, especially its rivers. This image is taken from See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image. This hardback, all-color book on early tourism in our region is sale priced at $22.50, postage paid.  Order the book by clicking on the “Buy our Books” tab.

“A Native Hunter”

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Aug 272024
 

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.

 

“Taking his medicine”

 Beautiful Ozarks, See The Ozarks  No Responses »
Aug 092024
 

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.

OZARKS TOURISM OF THE 1940S CAPTURED ON CLOTH

 James Fork of the White  No Responses »
Apr 052023
 

Souvenir cotton card table cover designed and printed by Steve Miller, 1940s.

Artist Steve Miller created most of Jim Owen’s advertising. He also designed the logo for an Owen dairy milk bottle which is today a pricey collector’s item. Miller was from Kirksville and after teaching in Mexico and Columbia, Missouri, became enamored with the Ozarks, setting up shop in Branson in 1941. Probably the card table sized cloth map, depicting the rustic recreational attractions of the Shepherd of the Hills Country, is from the ‘40s. We’ve found it printed in both red and blue.

Miller’s hillbilly motifs are rendered with the graphic sophistication of a New Yorker cartoonist. More than any artifact in our collection it this textile illustrates the connectivity of the various country attractions of early Branson. The place’s rusticity is artfully depicted. Miller was a fan of days and ways gone by but had a modern design flare. Cartooning gave the old-time attractions a pop culture, post-War look. “Nostalgia Heightens Interest in Ozarks” was the headline of a 1972 Springfield News-Leader article about a speech given by Miller, then the artist-in-residence at the School of the Ozarks.

Miller was mindful of the region’s traditional image. In 1949, he created the giant Nativity scene still used at Christmas on the bluff across Lake Taneycomo from downtown Branson. He joined the staff at the School (now College) of the Ozarks in 1962 where he taught, and curated the Ralph Foster collection of Ozarks artifacts and firearms. His works permeate print media of the region. He died in 1972, survived by wife, a son, and a daughter.

The tablecloth illustration is from See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image, an all color book of advertisements and souvenirs depicting early Ozarks tourism promotions and the image it created for the region. The book provides rich images and a unique aspect of history of Shepherd of the Hills Country, Eureka Springs, the Big Springs Country, Lake of the Ozarks, and more recent developments in this unique region – to answer the question: “What lured generations of travelers to the Ozarks?”

Lens & Pen Press is having a half-price sale for all titles. See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image, is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $12.50 (half the original price of $24.95), postage paid. See the Ozarks: The Touristic Image is a  96-page all color, hardbound book.