Amos Howard family with their dessert, Springdale, 1891. Guy Howard Collection (S-71-5-3)

Think food is used only to nourish our bodies? Think again! We use food to celebrate, to stereotype people, to express love or compassion, to treat ourselves, to compete or make money, to remember our roots, to garner compliments, and to come together as a community. Our tastes in food have changed over time depending on where we live, what we can afford, and what’s in fashion.

Church members often gathered for “dinners on the ground.” Blankets were laid on the grass and then piled with a bounty of delicious foods. Lucile Dees McVay attended such dinners during the late 1920s and 1930s at the annual Decoration Day at Wedington Cemetery. Every woman brought her specialty, whether it was homemade bread, deviled eggs, or candied sweet potatoes. Young Lucile waited patiently by her mother’s salmon cakes until the blessing was said–then she helped herself! Canned salmon was so expensive that these treats were rarely made at home.

There’s something about food that has made us come together over the years. Neighbors gathered for community events such as house raisings, funerals, and school functions. During John Quincy Wolf’s youth in the 1870s Ozarks, women came together to prepare food for the men building a house. When the dinner horn was sounded promptly at noon everyone came running to partake of the fried ham, preserves, pumpkin pie, hog jowls, biscuits and cornbread, cabbage, sausage, turnips, coffee, and greens.

Handwritten recipe. Alice Ruth Collection

Families gathered for celebrations such as holidays, birthdays, and weddings. When Wayman Hogue was growing up in the late 1800s, a wedding was held at his home in the Ozarks. A dozen chickens were fattened with corn and lots of cakes, custards, pies, and light [white] bread were made. Tables placed end-to-end in the yard held three boiled hams. The hams’ skin had been removed and large round dots of black pepper added as decoration. Coffee was expensive so sassafras tea was served.

Picnics were fun occasions for friends and family. Betty Greathouse of the Greathouse Springs community southwest of Springdale liked having big picnics in her yard. Sawhorses were placed under the old sycamore tree and outfitted with wide boards and overlapping tablecloths. Family members fried chicken and guests brought covered dishes of food. One of the community elders said the blessing, “usually profound and well spoken.”

Members of the Springdale Women’s Civic Club, February 1953. McRoberts, photographer. Springdale Chamber of Commerce Collection (S-77-9-22)

Every region of the country has dishes that it’s known for. When Charles Morrow Wilson grew up in Fayetteville in the early 1900s, typical Ozark fare included Johnny cakes, home-cured pork, Injun spareribs (a stew made with salt pork, sweet potatoes, green peppers, and corn), sweet potato puddings, hog jowls with cowpeas, and turnip greens with “pot likker,” the juice left behind after the greens and salt porkwere cooked in water.

During Wayman Hogue’s childhood in the Ozarks, “old man Adams” was the local barbeque expert. Families contributed sheep, goats, hogs, and calves to the annual Fourth of July celebration. Ditches were dug about 20 feet long and filled with oak and hickory. The evening before the big day Adams and his crew hung the carcasses from long poles and began cooking the meat.

Gregory-Robinson-Speas Recipe Book, circa 1930. Mira Leister Collection

Cooking techniques and recipes were often passed from mother to daughter. In the 1910s county extension offices formed to bring “practical demonstrations” in agriculture and home economics to rural communities. Home Demonstration clubs hosted university specialists who taught scientific canning techniques, nutrition, and other homemaking skills. Canned goods not only provided food for the family, it was a good way to earn extra income.

Food was used for charitable purposes such as raising money for schools and community buildings. At box suppers and pie suppers men vied with one another to bid on the food prepared by the prettiest girl or the best cook. Bringing gifts of food to a new or struggling family was common. In Alpena a “pounding” was held for the preacher and his family. Church members brought eggs, fruit, coffee, canned goods, garden produce, sugar—whatever they wished—often in one-pound amounts.

Food can identify people in many ways. In Tontitown, the community’s early Italian roots are proudly expressed in the spaghetti served at the annual Grape Festival. But food is offensively used by some to stereotype people, such as linking traditional Ozarkers to possum or African Americans to watermelon.

Amos Howard family with their dessert, Springdale, 1891. Guy Howard Collection (S-71-5-3)

Think food is used only to nourish our bodies? Think again! We use food to celebrate, to stereotype people, to express love or compassion, to treat ourselves, to compete or make money, to remember our roots, to garner compliments, and to come together as a community. Our tastes in food have changed over time depending on where we live, what we can afford, and what’s in fashion.

Church members often gathered for “dinners on the ground.” Blankets were laid on the grass and then piled with a bounty of delicious foods. Lucile Dees McVay attended such dinners during the late 1920s and 1930s at the annual Decoration Day at Wedington Cemetery. Every woman brought her specialty, whether it was homemade bread, deviled eggs, or candied sweet potatoes. Young Lucile waited patiently by her mother’s salmon cakes until the blessing was said–then she helped herself! Canned salmon was so expensive that these treats were rarely made at home.

There’s something about food that has made us come together over the years. Neighbors gathered for community events such as house raisings, funerals, and school functions. During John Quincy Wolf’s youth in the 1870s Ozarks, women came together to prepare food for the men building a house. When the dinner horn was sounded promptly at noon everyone came running to partake of the fried ham, preserves, pumpkin pie, hog jowls, biscuits and cornbread, cabbage, sausage, turnips, coffee, and greens.

Handwritten recipe. Alice Ruth Collection

Families gathered for celebrations such as holidays, birthdays, and weddings. When Wayman Hogue was growing up in the late 1800s, a wedding was held at his home in the Ozarks. A dozen chickens were fattened with corn and lots of cakes, custards, pies, and light [white] bread were made. Tables placed end-to-end in the yard held three boiled hams. The hams’ skin had been removed and large round dots of black pepper added as decoration. Coffee was expensive so sassafras tea was served.

Picnics were fun occasions for friends and family. Betty Greathouse of the Greathouse Springs community southwest of Springdale liked having big picnics in her yard. Sawhorses were placed under the old sycamore tree and outfitted with wide boards and overlapping tablecloths. Family members fried chicken and guests brought covered dishes of food. One of the community elders said the blessing, “usually profound and well spoken.”

Members of the Springdale Woman’s Civic Club, February 1953. Springdale Chamber of Commerce Collection/McRoberts, photographer (S-77-9-22)

Every region of the country has dishes that it’s known for. When Charles Morrow Wilson grew up in Fayetteville in the early 1900s, typical Ozark fare included Johnny cakes, home-cured pork, Injun spareribs (a stew made with salt pork, sweet potatoes, green peppers, and corn), sweet potato puddings, hog jowls with cowpeas, and turnip greens with “pot likker,” the juice left behind after the greens and salt porkwere cooked in water.

During Wayman Hogue’s childhood in the Ozarks, “old man Adams” was the local barbeque expert. Families contributed sheep, goats, hogs, and calves to the annual Fourth of July celebration. Ditches were dug about 20 feet long and filled with oak and hickory. The evening before the big day Adams and his crew hung the carcasses from long poles and began cooking the meat.

Gregory-Robinson-Speas Recipe Book, circa 1930. Mira Leister Collection

Cooking techniques and recipes were often passed from mother to daughter. In the 1910s county extension offices formed to bring “practical demonstrations” in agriculture and home economics to rural communities. Home Demonstration clubs hosted university specialists who taught scientific canning techniques, nutrition, and other homemaking skills. Canned goods not only provided food for the family, it was a good way to earn extra income.

Food was used for charitable purposes such as raising money for schools and community buildings. At box suppers and pie suppers men vied with one another to bid on the food prepared by the prettiest girl or the best cook. Bringing gifts of food to a new or struggling family was common. In Alpena a “pounding” was held for the preacher and his family. Church members brought eggs, fruit, coffee, canned goods, garden produce, sugar—whatever they wished—often in one-pound amounts.

Food can identify people in many ways. In Tontitown, the community’s early Italian roots are proudly expressed in the spaghetti served at the annual Grape Festival. But food is offensively used by some to stereotype people, such as linking traditional Ozarkers to possum or African Americans to watermelon.

Arnold, Eleanor, editor. Voices of American Homemakers: An Oral History Project of the National Extension Homemakers Council. Metropolitan Printing Service, Inc., 1985.

Hill, Ethel D. “Women’s Cash from Canning.” Arkansas Countryman [Fayetteville, AR], April 12, 1928.

Jones, W. G. “Sugar Cookies.” Benton County Pioneer, Vol. 5, No. 5 (July 1960).

Hogue, Wayman. Back Yonder. New Rochelle, NY: Knickerbocker Press, 1932.

McNeil, W. K.  and William M. Clements, editors. An Arkansas Folklore Sourcebook. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1992.

McVay, Lucile Dees. “Dinner on the Ground.” March 1999. Shiloh Museum research files.

White, T. A. Jr. “Memories of Greathouse Springs.” Ozarks Mountaineer, March-April 1985.

Wilson, Charles Morrow. The Bodacious Ozarks: True Tales of the Backhills.  New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1959.

Wolf, John Quincy. Life in the Leatherwoods: An Ozark Boyhood Remembered. Little Rock: August House, 1988.

Basin Spring with billboard, candy factory, Thornton’s store, and a building under construction, circa 1880. A town quickly formed around Basin and the other springs. Sensing a business opportunity, O. D. Thornton became the town’s first merchant in July 1879, offering groceries, hardware, and notions like calico cloth, which he cut with a pocketknife. Lockwood W. Searcy Collection (S-77-66-24)

Arsenic Spring with wood water trough, early 1880s. Early health seekers would have found the springs in their most natural state—small flows of water coming through the hillside. Visitors navigated the steep, rugged terrain as best they could. In the 1880s and 1890s elaborate rockwork or wood structures were added to many springs to improve access and beautify the town. F. F. Fyler, photographer. Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library Collection (S-83-325-38)

Sweet Spring (formerly Spout Spring), 1895. Spout spring was once used for baptisms. The Waldrip brothers built the masonry wall around the spring in 1885. The water was used for drinking as well as for a laundry and bathhouse. Gray’s Studio, photographer. Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library Collection (S-83-325-106)

Cincinnati House, early 1880s. Visitors stayed in hotels, boarding houses, or in private homes, depending on their desired level of service and price. Like many of Eureka’s buildings, the Cincinnati, a small boarding house managed by J. T. Alexander, was built into the steep hillside. It was in operation in 1881 but by 1884 it was either renamed or no longer in business. F. F. Fyler, photographer. Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library Collection (S-83-325-40)

Crescent Hotel, late 1880s. Built by the Frisco Railroad and wealthy investors of the Eureka Springs Improvement Company, the $294,000 luxury hotel opened in 1886. After the decline of tourism in the early 1900s, the building was home to a girl’s school and later a bogus cancer clinic. Today the newly restored Crescent markets itself as “America’s Most Haunted Hotel.” Gray’s Studio, photographer. Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library Collection (S-83-325-105)

Basin Spring Bath House with attendants, 1903. The Eureka Springs Water Company of St. Louis began shipping Basin Spring water in 1880, running pipes down the hillside. The company filled their barrels at night to allow for daytime use by the spring’s health seekers. It also ran the Basin Spring Bathhouse. Eugene Smith, photographer. (S-86-122-44)

Bathing room, Palace Hotel and Bath House, 1910s–1920s. Built for George T. Williams in 1901, the Palace Bath House offered water baths and showers, Turkish steam baths, and massages. It had a cafe, laundry, and barbershop and, for a time, operated as a brothel. Customers at today’s spa can enjoy a steam or a massage. Eugene Smith, photographer. (S-86-122-43)

Mrs. O. W. Coleman at Harding Spring, 1920s. There was a small African-American presence in Eureka in its early years, including residents who worked as barbers, brick masons, and Crescent Hotel maids. While some African Americans came for health reasons, others came as the servants of white health seekers. Racial segregation led to separate churches, hotels, schools, neighborhoods, and even springs. For a time, Harding was the only spring African Americans were allowed to visit. The rock wall to Mrs. Coleman’s right was part of an electronic ultraviolet water treatment system. It was added in 1921, after water from the town’s springs was deemed unsafe for drinking. Eureka Springs Historical Museum Collection (S-99-66-372)

Siloam Spring, mid 1880s. In 1882 a stone wall was built to house the pipework needed to channel the spring’s water into three spouts. The wall was redesigned by 1897 and remains today, although little water flows from the spring. J. E. Suttle, photographer. Siloam Springs Museum Collection (S-83-302-80)

Twin Springs, early 1890s. The sign on the tree warns of a $5 fine for a person washing their hands or face in the water. Clean water was important to combat the spread of disease and protect the town’s health-based industry. Protective reservations restricting development were often placed around springs. Siloam Springs Museum Collection (S-83-302-79)

Twin Springs, early 1900s. Rockwork from the 1880s may still form a portion of the spring’s enclosure, which was redesigned into an arc shape around 1900. The low wall in front kept Sager Creek from flooding Twin Springs. Little water flows from the springs today. Bob Besom Collection (S-82-193-30)

Band concert, City Park, circa 1910. Sunday afternoons were a time of rest and relaxation, which included strolls through the parks and carriage rides in the country, including day trips to nearby Dripping Springs and its 77-feet tall waterfall (now part of Natural Falls State Park, Oklahoma). Bernice Freeze Collection (S-83-145-6)

Twin Springs Park, late 1910s. The park was once called the “Isle of Patmos” after the Greek island where the apostle John received a vision. The garden and a nearby vine-covered rockwork fountain were installed around 1913. The garden still exists, as does a newer fountain. Maggie Smith Collection (S-83-115-33)

Entrance to the city park, 1900s. The park held three of the town’s four mineral springs. Visitors could enjoy the plunge (swimming pool), a baseball lawn and tennis grounds, bathhouses, and promenade grounds. The park is still used today for play, barbeques, and impromptu yard sales. Mrs. Bobbie Kennard Collection (S-86-121-26)

Pavilions for the black sulphur, white sulphur, and magnesia springs, circa 1912. A lithia spring, said to strengthen the muscular and nervous systems, is located on the north end of the park, across Butler Creek. The construction of a nearby water tower in the 1970s has impacted the spring’s water flow. Bob Besom Collection (S-82-170-64)

Mountain View Hotel (formerly the Kihlberg Hotel), mid 1910s. The Kihlberg changed hands several times before John E. Brown bought it and opened a Christian school. A fire in 1940 destroyed the top half of the building. In later years the structure housed the Wycliffe Bible Translators and was part of the campus of the Shiloh Farms Community, a self-sustaining, non-denominational Christian organization. Bob Besom Collection (S-82-213-61)

Boating on Lake LaBalladine, circa 1910. Butler Creek was dammed to form a small lake. A boathouse was built and folks liked to dive off the dam. The high ground at the center of the lake was known as Amusement Island and included a roller skating and dancing pavilion. Benton County Historical Society Collection (S-83-116-81)

Griffin Drug Store and sanitarium, circa 1910. In 1909 Dr. John Morse Griffin and his wife Emma formed the Sulphur Spring Sanitarium Company to treat the infirm. They also formed the Sulphur Springs Mineral Water Company to bottle and ship mineral and carbonated water. Mrs. Bobbie Kennard Collection (S-86-121-25)

Burger Bathhouse sign, with intentional misspellings for “tubbed” and “rubbed,” 1930s–1940s. Frank and Ann Burger built their bathhouse in the 1920s, offering hot and cold black sulphur-water baths, salt rubs, massages, and electric treatments. Frank attended the men while Ann helped with the women. Hazel McGowen Stotler Collection (S-96-80-281)

Visitors at the magnesia and white sulphur springs, 1920s. In 1924 evangelist John E. Brown of Siloam Springs bought most of Sulphur Springs, including the city park, to form a campus for John Brown University, a four-year vocational college. Two years later it was reorganized as a women’s college, but closed in 1928. Jim Buckley Family Collection (S-86-192-1)

Cherokee City lies along the western border of Benton County, next to what was Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The town site was surveyed in 1880 and over the next two years the area boomed as a summer resort, based on its springs. A hotel was erected, as were small, quickly built structures to meet the lodging needs of health seekers.

In 1882 resident John D. Hood described Cherokee City as thriving, with a population of around 300 to 400. “People visit [the medicinal spring] from all parts of the United States for their health.” Of the area, he said, “The people all look healthy and the society is good.”

For whatever reason, Cherokee City’s health industry quickly went from boom to bust. The town survived for a time as a frontier trading post and as a supplier of whisky to the neighboring Indian tribes. Just a few dozen folks live there today.

“. . . we turned our course south taking the line road for Cherokee City, another of the watering places of Benton county. Eight miles over a fine road and some nice country brought us to the Cherokee City springs, where we found plenty of water and forty or fifty campers. This is a pleasant place. Mr. Rich is the owner of the land and general proprietor of the place. Lots were to be laid off on the following Monday and put on the market.”

Fayetteville Democrat
July 24, 1880

In 1879 Ambrose T. Hedges homesteaded a number of acres in what would become Eldorado. He transferred the property to the Eldorado Spring Town Company in 1880. It seems likely the investors were hoping to mimic the success of Eureka Springs. And naming the place after the legendary Spanish city of gold was sure to impress. Company president Dr. C. F. Baker had the spring’s water tested. A trace amount of arsenic was found which, at the time, was thought to have healing properties.

Land was platted and lots were sold. Various businesses and several doctors moved to town. A six-room boarding house was built and, as the town grew, a multistory hotel was added to the hillside. Water was bottled and shipped out. New springs were dug at the base of the hills and walled with stone. Advertisements were sent to large newspapers on the East Coast. A post office was established under the name Pactolus, as Arkansas already had a town called El Dorado. The population grew to 1,500 in 1883. In 1883 or 1884, water from Spavinaw Creek flooded the valley town, destroying most of the buildings and causing many residents to move away. In the early 1900s the post office closed and the large hotel was torn down. Today only a few fragments remain of Eldorado.

“There are fifty two houses completed, ten in course of construction, about fifteen or twenty tents and a population of about three hundred and fifty. . . . The place gives many evidences of success.”

Fayetteville Democrat
July 24, 1880

Electric Springs Hotel, circa 1890. The hotel was built in 1888 by the Frisco to encourage passenger traffic to Rogers. Guests were driven from the depot in carriages to “Horsely’s Hotel,” run by William Horsely. The building was torn down in the early 1940s. Washington County Historical Society Collection (P-4812)

Electric Springs was laid out in 1881, with over 550 lots for building, just northeast of the new town of Rogers. In 1888 the San Francisco-St. Louis Railway Company (the “Frisco”) saw the commercial potential of a spring located near its Rogers railroad depot. In hopes of providing business for the railroad, the Frisco built a large hotel. Several cottages were also erected.

As the wonder of commercial electricity became available during the late 19th century, electrotherapy and electromagnetism treatments came into vogue. The spring may have been named to cash in on the popularity of electric medicine or because of its reputed ability to magnetize metal. In 1897 a St. Louis chemist analyzed the water and declared it good for “sties [inflamed swelling of the eyelid], carbuncles [a severe boil in the skin], boils, internal abscess, glands, liver diseases, scrofula [glandular swelling], rheumatism, indigestion and constipation.”

Electric Springs, circa 1910. N. B. Morton was known as the “Mayor of Electric Springs.” He sold spring water to the citizens of Rogers. His belief in its curative properties was so strong that he said that if the water didn’t cure a body, “something else must be lacking.” Tom P. Morgan, photographer. Bonnie Hanks Collection (S-2000-40-2)

For a time the resort was so popular that visitors came year after year. A horse-drawn carriage ran daily from downtown to the spring. In 1903 the Cottage Hotel was built. Two years later Lena Fuller, a nurse, and Dr. W. L. Leister opened the Electric Springs Sanitarium, conducting it “as a resort for the scientific treatment of diseases.” Leister was an Eclectic physician and medical author. Eclectic medicine developed in the late 19th century as a reaction to traditional medicine’s “barbaric” use of such treatments as purging and bloodletting. It used botanical remedies and other substances to treat patients, along with physical therapy.

While the hotel and sanitarium are long gone, the springs’ stone wall and concrete basins can still be seen along the south side of Highway 12, near Lake Atalanta, about one mile northeast of downtown Rogers.

[The Electric Springs Sanitarium] “ . . . is located in a wooded valley surround by mountains, whose sides are covered with beautiful forestry. It is isolated, yet hard-by electric springs—three phenomenal streams of medicinal cold water spurting from the base of West Mountain. An ideal retreat, all in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, in a climate cooler in summer than a hundred of miles further north, and warmer in winter than western Texas.”

Dr. W. L. Leister
The Eclectic Medical Journal
May 1905

Field Bohart with friend, early 1900s. The rock-covered spring is seen at top center. A metal pipe discharges water near the end of the bridge. In later years, a sign proudly announced the spring’s radioactivity. Monte Harris Collection (S-86-319-10)

Two small “therapeutic” springs were discovered near downtown Bentonville in the 1890s. In 1910 A. T. Still opened the 42-room Park Springs Sanitarium. An ad in a psychiatric medical journal touted the sanitarium as the “Carlsbad of America,” offering to treat “nervous, mild, mental cases and drug habitués.”

J. D. Southerland purchased the building in 1913 and turned it into the Park Springs Hotel, a summer resort where families could “escape the hot weather in the cities.” Southerland also owned the short-lived interurban, a type of streetcar that provided passenger service from the Frisco depot in Rogers to downtown Bentonville and the hotel.

The Alienist and Neurologist, May 1910.

Park Springs was promoted as having radioactive water which could treat diabetes, rheumatism, and diseases of the stomach, kidney, and bladder. Treatment involved “drinking, inhalation of steam or vapors, douches, irrigation of accessible organs” and external application by shower, water pack, or bathing. A 1920s advertisement promoted the water’s combination of radium and lithium, describing the taste as “simply delicious” and that “one can drink all one wants without injury.” It goes on to say that radium “is conceded by the medical profession to be one of the greatest curative elements ever discovered.”

Rendering of the Park Springs Sanitarium by the St. Louis architecture firm of Matthews & Clarke, circa 1910. A. O. Clarke designed many notable area buildings including Missouri Row, a log hotel at Monte Ne. Although the resort included springs named Elixir and Lithia, it rarely advertised itself as a health destination. Tom Duggan Collection (S-2008-5-1)

Southerland experienced financial troubles and sold the property to George and Clara Crowder, who operated the resort until 1924. Over the years the building was used for nursing homes and Christian colleges. It was torn down in the 1960s or 1970s. Park Springs Park is located at 300 NW 10th Street. The 18-acre park includes the springs, a playground, a small pavilion for gatherings, and the Burns Arboretum/Nature Trail.

“The town at present contains 100 neat, commodious and comfortable business houses and residences, all of which are filled by a sturdy and moral people, most of whom are receiving lasting benefits from the many health-giving springs. The main springs are well protected by large reservations or parks, all of which are covered with a dense growth of native timber and are guarded with the jealous eyes of the citizens.”

Elixir Bugle
March 24, 1883

Elixir Spring lies in the pine-covered hills of Elixir Valley. It was discovered high up on the mountainside under a large bluff, by a farmer looking for stray cattle. He drank the water, found it soft and sweet tasting, and continued to drink, day after day. Much to his surprise, he was cured of a stomach ailment. Sharing the news of his discovery in Harrison, several men decided to invest in a health resort.

In 1880 the town was laid out into 129 blocks with roughly 1,000 lots. Homes and businesses were erected, including three large, three-story hotels built into the hillsides—the Singletary, the Ladd, and the Stillwell. Within a few years the town boasted hundreds of residents. The Elixir Bugle newspaper was established and the Elixir Institute began holding classes in September 1882. Additional springs were discovered and named, including Medica, Sulphur, and Tonic.

To ensure its success, Elixir leaders worked to bring a railroad to town. Surveying parties came and marked right-of-ways, building up residents’ hopes, but nothing came of it. The town was too far off the beaten path. Folks began to move away and the school closed. By 1892 Elixir Springs was nearly a ghost town.

“I was brought to the Springs in a helpless condition with heart disease. My treatment was Elixir water. In three months I could walk and my health was restored.”

Rachel Willis of Oregon, Arkansas
Elixir Bugle
May 5, 1883

In the early 1880s, the chalybeate (iron) springs on Grand Mountain were found to have medicinal properties. A two-story hotel was built, along with a few small log homes. During the summer, tents were erected beneath the trees. Stone steps were laid around the spring to afford health seekers a place to sit while they took the water.

In the late 1920s Jim Parker, whose family owned the spring, wrote that “Pure mountain air and rest beneath the shade of the trees gave relief from chills and malaria fever, and many lame-backed old men insisted that the water was a sovereign remedy for kidney troubles.” It’s unclear how long the hotel lasted, but the Parker family retained their old house near the spring, saying, “Who knows but this place may again have value as a health resort?”

Today the hotel is long gone but the spring remains. It’s located on private property on the side of a steep hill, protected by a small, stacked rock enclosure. Stone steps, now buried under years of soil and leaves, once gave visitors access to the water. For many years a dipper was kept at the spring for passersby. Just below the spring is a concrete-block trough. Water from the spring drips into it, depositing dissolved iron, seen as a reddish-brown substance.

In 1886 Hugh F. McDanield began building a railroad east from Fayetteville to St. Paul, to take advantage of the area’s vast timber resources. On a mountaintop south of town stood a tall sandstone rock formation called “Chimney Rock.” Three springs were found near the outcropping, at the base of several large boulders.

When McDanield learned of the springs he had the water tested and was told they had medicinal qualities. He decided to build a hotel like the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, hoping to turn St. Paul into a tourist destination. Such an elegant hotel “would add a touch of polish to the rawness and clamor of the busy new town.” Bluegrass seed was sown, a thirteen-acre game preserve was set aside, a road was begun, and blueprints for the hotel were drawn by a St. Louis architect. Three railroad carloads of pipe meant to carry water from the springs were delivered to the foot of the mountain, but McDanield’s death in 1888 ended the venture. The pipe lay there for years, rusting away. Remnants of it could still be seen in the 1960s.

“Oh! how all blossoming things would revel if planted and cared for here! What hanging gardens of delight could be made on this mountain side!  . . . I hope and wish that every word I have heard of Mr. McDanield’s plans for this mountain may be true, and that they may perfectly succeed. I think that it is not only well calculated for a summer resort from the crowded cities, but for a winter resort for invalids and others wishing to escape northern winters, and for a resting place for the over-worked and world-weary.”

St. Paul Republican
November 12, 1887

Hackler or Hatfield family at Tom Thumb Spring, 1950s. During the 20th century the Hackler family got their water supply from the spring; the Hatfields lived nearby. In 1961 Rev. C. H. Hatfield wrote, “This spring is not as bold as it used to be, but its mineral content is great.” Benton County Pioneer, November 1962.

David Wilbur Beck’s ambition was to be a physician and to have a health resort. In the early 1840s he learned of a group of explorers from the Gaither Cove community in Boone County who had traveled to a remote spring just over the Newton County line to collect water to treat an outbreak of malaria. While there they met a small man who went by the name of Tom Thumb, who was taking the waters for an ailment.

Sensing an opportunity, Beck hired men at 25 cents per day to build a dormitory near the spring for summer visitors. Beck also built a dog-trot log building; one side was for his family, the other for his doctor’s office. The Becks lived as squatters, hoping to eventually claim the land from the government. One summer Beck’s wife became ill and died of malaria. Beck remarried but his second wife was not enthusiastic about the resort, telling him that “she would not be part of bathing dirty old men for them to try to regain their youth.” Sometime during or after the Civil War bushwhackers raided the property, burning 70 cottages, yet sparing two open-roofed bathhouses and the dormitory. The Becks then abandoned their land.

In the mid 1870s Dr. Thomas Jayland of New York began squatting near the spring. A botanist and a Quaker, Jayland administered his herbal medicines for free. At its peak the population at the spring reached around 400 to 500 folks, with most camping for a short time while they took the waters. He told visitors they were welcome to build houses and that he would give them their home site, once he received his land patent. Several cabins belonged to doctors and preachers.

Although Jayland was said to be adverse to money, in 1880 he sold his homestead near the spring to a Mr. Brisco, whose brother ran the health spa. Jayland went back on his promise to deed the land to the homebuilders, claiming that God wouldn’t like his gift to the world to be commercialized. This angered folks and many left. One night Jayland’s cabin was doused with oil and set on fire. The doctor escaped and moved away. By 1883 only a few souls lived at the spring. Today the spring is enclosed, serving as a water supply for the owners of the property.

Hackler or Hatfield family at Tom Thumb Spring, 1950s. During the 20th century the Hackler family got their water supply from the spring; the Hatfields lived nearby. In 1961 Rev. C. H. Hatfield wrote, “This spring is not as bold as it used to be, but its mineral content is great.” Benton County Pioneer, November 1962.

David Wilbur Beck’s ambition was to be a physician and to have a health resort. In the early 1840s he learned of a group of explorers from the Gaither Cove community in Boone County who had traveled to a remote spring just over the Newton County line to collect water to treat an outbreak of malaria. While there they met a small man who went by the name of Tom Thumb, who was taking the waters for an ailment.

Sensing an opportunity, Beck hired men at 25 cents per day to build a dormitory near the spring for summer visitors. Beck also built a dog-trot log building; one side was for his family, the other for his doctor’s office. The Becks lived as squatters, hoping to eventually claim the land from the government. One summer Beck’s wife became ill and died of malaria. Beck remarried but his second wife was not enthusiastic about the resort, telling him that “she would not be part of bathing dirty old men for them to try to regain their youth.” Sometime during or after the Civil War bushwhackers raided the property, burning 70 cottages, yet sparing two open-roofed bathhouses and the dormitory. The Becks then abandoned their land.

In the mid 1870s Dr. Thomas Jayland of New York began squatting near the spring. A botanist and a Quaker, Jayland administered his herbal medicines for free. At its peak the population at the spring reached around 400 to 500 folks, with most camping for a short time while they took the waters. He told visitors they were welcome to build houses and that he would give them their home site, once he received his land patent. Several cabins belonged to doctors and preachers.

Although Jayland was said to be adverse to money, in 1880 he sold his homestead near the spring to a Mr. Brisco, whose brother ran the health spa. Jayland went back on his promise to deed the land to the homebuilders, claiming that God wouldn’t like his gift to the world to be commercialized. This angered folks and many left. One night Jayland’s cabin was doused with oil and set on fire. The doctor escaped and moved away. By 1883 only a few souls lived at the spring. Today the spring is enclosed, serving as a water supply for the owners of the property.

Salem Springs was first settled in the early 1830s, before Arkansas statehood. Located along the border of then Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), it served as a trading post for many years. It was renamed Sexton in 1882 with the establishment of a post office. At that time promoters boasted about the healing powers of the town’s three springs which emerged from a bluff and were channeled ten feet down to the valley floor via a wood trough. The water from each spring was said to have been a different temperature, although they were all within a few feet of one another.

Boosters claimed that the springs were equal or superior to other medicinal springs and that Sexton’s location was better in many ways than that of Eureka Springs and Siloam Springs. The springs were said to help cure “scrofula, rheumatism, scald head, dyspepsia, liver complaint and cancerous affectation.” According to an 1882 news article, Mrs. Deal of Humboldt, Kansas, ” . . . commenced using the water in September last, and a few weeks ago the cancer all came out and is rapidly healing up.”

At first, health-seekers camped near the spring in the summertime. Then Russell Bates built a two-story hotel for those taking the waters and enjoying the “invigorating Ozark Mountain air.” He later sold the hotel to Ben Fields. The town, which had hopes of being the next Eureka Springs or Siloam Springs, began to fade away in the early 1900s after being bypassed by two railroads. Today the spring still flows down the bluff into a plastic trough, but all that’s left of Sexton is one old home.

“Reverend Gamaliel Bryant of Goshen . . . could hardly walk when he went to Salem . . . and to convince us that he had been greatly benefitted he jumped up and cracked his heels together like a lad of 16, although he is some 65 years of age.”

Fayetteville Democrat
June 21, 1883

Springhouse at Sulphur City, 1922. The sulphur spring was located on the bottom level of the structure, within an open-air pavilion. This configuration likely helped vent the water’s strong smell. Over the years the springhouse was used as a community building. Washington County Historical Society Collection (P-721)

Located near the Middle Fork of the White River, the Sulphur City community was first called Mankins after a local family. Hearing the news of Eureka Springs’ prosperity, entrepreneurs renamed the town Sulphur Springs, only to change it to Sulphur City when they discovered the former name was taken. Promoters said the spring was good for gout, dyspepsia (indigestion), cancer, rheumatism, and other ailments.

Expecting prosperity, a springhouse and guest cottages where built in the early 1880s. North of the spring the land was sectioned into 24 blocks, each with 12 lots. Dr. John C. Carter prepared to administer bloodletting and other treatments to patients at his nearby office. A “large and beautiful park” and a hotel to be supplied with spring water was planned for, but never built. Remarking on the lack of progress, George Van Hoose, the Sulphur City correspondent for a Fayetteville newspaper, wrote, “The timbers of the hotel remain growing in the forest.”

At the spring, water first trickled into a triangular basin which was so small, that only one foot could be bathed at a time. The basin was eventually enlarged to hold about five gallons of water, taking an hour or so to fill. Below, a bathing “tub” was carved from rock.

The resort never took off. Patients would have had to travel ten or more miles by horse from Fayetteville or Elkins over rough country roads. The spring produced little water, perhaps another reason for the resort’s failure.

Today a tumbled stone wall and scattered rockwork can be found in the woods along County Road 57, just east of the Whitehouse Road intersection, across from the Sulphur City Baptist Church. Water still seeps from the spring, leaving a whitish residue on the ground and a strong, sulphurous smell in the air. Dr. Carter’s office has been relocated to the grounds of the Shiloh Museum.

“The spring is of the kind generally known as the ‘white sulphur’ because of the white deposit left by the water upon any surface over which it flows.  The water is very strongly impregnated with gas, as is evidence by the marked odor perceived on approaching the spring . . . About a quarter mile [away] . . . is located what has been known as the ‘Selzer Spring,’ which is reported to be valuable, especially in cases of female trouble.”

Fayetteville Democrat
January 19, 1882

Springhouse at Sulphur City, 1922. The sulphur spring was located on the bottom level of the structure, within an open-air pavilion. This configuration likely helped vent the water’s strong smell. Over the years the springhouse was used as a community building. Washington County Historical Society Collection (P-721)

Located near the Middle Fork of the White River, the Sulphur City community was first called Mankins after a local family. Hearing the news of Eureka Springs’ prosperity, entrepreneurs renamed the town Sulphur Springs, only to change it to Sulphur City when they discovered the former name was taken. Promoters said the spring was good for gout, dyspepsia (indigestion), cancer, rheumatism, and other ailments.

Expecting prosperity, a springhouse and guest cottages where built in the early 1880s. North of the spring the land was sectioned into 24 blocks, each with 12 lots. Dr. John C. Carter prepared to administer bloodletting and other treatments to patients at his nearby office. A “large and beautiful park” and a hotel to be supplied with spring water was planned for, but never built. Remarking on the lack of progress, George Van Hoose, the Sulphur City correspondent for a Fayetteville newspaper, wrote, “The timbers of the hotel remain growing in the forest.”

At the spring, water first trickled into a triangular basin which was so small, that only one foot could be bathed at a time. The basin was eventually enlarged to hold about five gallons of water, taking an hour or so to fill. Below, a bathing “tub” was carved from rock.

The resort never took off. Patients would have had to travel ten or more miles by horse from Fayetteville or Elkins over rough country roads. The spring produced little water, perhaps another reason for the resort’s failure.

Today a tumbled stone wall and scattered rockwork can be found in the woods along County Road 57, just east of the Whitehouse Road intersection, across from the Sulphur City Baptist Church. Water still seeps from the spring, leaving a whitish residue on the ground and a strong, sulphurous smell in the air. Dr. Carter’s office has been relocated to the grounds of the Shiloh Museum.

“The spring is of the kind generally known as the ‘white sulphur’ because of the white deposit left by the water upon any surface over which it flows.  The water is very strongly impregnated with gas, as is evidence by the marked odor perceived on approaching the spring . . . About a quarter mile [away] . . . is located what has been known as the ‘Selzer Spring,’ which is reported to be valuable, especially in cases of female trouble.”

Fayetteville Democrat
January 19, 1882

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———. “From Salem Springs.” Fayetteville Daily Democrat, 3-16-1882.

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———. “Two pools and a hotel.” Benton County Daily Democrat, 8-17-1986.

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Harris, Monte. “Calahan’s Station.” Rogers Historical Museum.  https://rogersar.gov/DocumentCenter/View/339/Callahans-Station-PDF (accessed 10-4-2020)

———. Email correspondence with Marie Demeroukas (Shiloh Museum research librarian), April 2014.

Hilton, Burline. “Old Salem Springs (Sexton).” Flashback, Vol. XIX, No. 1 (February 1969).

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Howard family members at the Amos Howard home east of present-day Springdale, 1891. Guy Howard is in the front row, wearing a dark shirt. W. G. Howard Collection (S-71-5-3)

In 1881 a five-year-old Nebraska boy found an “arrowhead” in the family garden, sparking a lifelong interest in Native American artifacts. When the Howard family moved to Springdale by covered wagon in the early 1890s, young Guy Howard brought a box of curiosities with him. Imagine his delight upon finding the Ozarks rich in Native American history. His collection grew and grew.

Guy Howard, circa 1895. Lloyd Grammer Collection (S-93-49-6)

Guy Howard in his law office on Emma Avenue, 1914. Lloyd Grammer Collection (S-93-49-6)

A man from another era, Guy Howard was “the last of the old-time attorneys,” as one Springdale resident put it. Born in 1876, he formed his outlook and habits in a stiff-collared world that he never left far behind. Howard’s formal schooling ended before he arrived in Springdale with his parents and two sisters about 1890. He entered the legal profession by “reading” (apprenticing) under two Springdale attorneys, passing the state bar exam in 1907. He set up a small office above Penrod’s Café on Emma Avenue (near the present-day Emma Avenue Bar and Tap).

Howard was a creature of habit. Those who remember him say he always wore a white shirt, dark pants, and white hat. He walked the same six-block route to work, making the same stops each day. One stop was Joyce’s Drug Store on Emma where he placed a nickel on the glass counter and waited for a fresh cigar.

Guy Howard (middle) in his law office on Emma Avenue, circa 1920. Ulys Lovell Collection (S-71-5-7)

Howard was Springdale city attorney during World War I and mayor from 1938 to 1944. There were about 3,000 people in Springdale at the time. But Howard and the city council faced questions and problems that are familiar to us today. They purchased a rock crusher for street repair, applied for federal grants for the water works, regulated pets, relocated the jail, helped the library repair its roof, organized a city-wide clean-up, watched over the distribution of garments to citizens in need, set salaries for the nine or so city employees, and much, much more. During his time as municipal judge in the early 1950s, Howard had a reputation for being tough. From that point on he was known simply as “the Judge,” the epitaph inscribed on his Bluff Cemetery tombstone.

Guy Howard pointing to the artifact that started his collection, 1958. The photo was likely taken by University of Arkansas student Joyce Jenkins as part of a project for Mary Parler’s folklore class. Guy Howard Collection (S-93-41-52)

“I’ve made my $20, so I’m going home,” Guy Howard once explained to a passerby as he left his law office a little early. He said he didn’t think anyone should make more than $20 in a day!

Howard enjoyed his home at 502 Price Street which he shared with his sisters, Lillian and Eva. Lillian kept the house, which was never locked, and Eva worked at Washington County Abstract. Unmarried, the three looked after one another.

Lillian collected books and Eva collected teapots, but the collection that dominated their lives belonged to the Judge. It took over the living room, an upstairs den, the garage, the workshop, his Emma Avenue law office, and finally a cabin on Hickory Creek.

Howard spent hours in his backyard workshop creating ways to display his treasures. He placed stone points within frames, which he nailed to the walls and ceilings, mounting some in certain ways to show how they were used. He painted a vine to look like a snake and created imaginary creatures from tree knots. Then he made sure that there was a story to tell about each item.

For three decades school classes, Boy Scouts, families, and strangers visited the Howard home to see and hear about the strange and wonderful things. In a very real sense the roots of the present Shiloh Museum were in Guy Howard’s astonishing exhibits and informal tours.

Shiloh Museum curator Linda Allen at her desk alongside artifacts from the Guy Howard Collection, January 1969. At that time the museum was housed in the old Springdale Public Library building. Charles Bickford, photographer. Springdale News Collection (SN-1-1969-5)

By the mid-1950s Lillian, Eva, and Guy Howard began feeling their old age. None of them ever made a lot of money, and they were simply not well prepared for “retirement.” Howard decided he needed to sell his famous collection to make ends meet.

Springdale city officials, some of whom had visited his museum as youngsters, did not want the artifacts to get away. As one explained, they also wanted to help Howard, who had worked for the city “practically for nothing” most of his life. In 1965 the Springdale City Council purchased Howard’s collection for $15,000.

In 1966 the Northwest Arkansas Archeological Society, with help from the University of Arkansas Museum, volunteered to organize the Guy Howard Collection and prepare it for exhibition in the old Springdale Public Library building, which was to be repurposed as the new Shiloh Museum. Larry Swaim, president of the society, said members met evenings and weekends for more than a year cleaning, studying, and sorting the materials.

The volunteers called on experts to authenticate the collection, which included a mixture of authentic items, authentic items that had been altered, and frauds. Most of the frauds were cleverly crafted and the archeologists wondered whether Howard knew that these were frauds when he acquired them. Among the experts who worked on the project were archeologists Gregory Perino (Gilcrease Museum), Hester Davis (state archeologist of Arkansas), Jerry Hilliard (Arkansas Archeological Survey), and Robert Lafferty III (Mid-Continental Research Associates), along with Don R. Dickson, a regional expert on archeology and flint-knapping; and Dr. Frederick Dockstader, a noted authority on Native American art.

A museum board was appointed, and Linda Allen was hired as curator. On September 7, 1968, the doors of the Shiloh Museum were opened to the public for the first time. As the museum’s emphasis on local history grew over the years, the Howard Collection became less prominent. Today some of his collections are on display in our Native American exhibit.

Letters sent by tribal historic preservation officers to the Shiloh Museum regarding human remains, associated funerary objects, or objects of cultural patrimony in its collection, 2016–2018.

When Guy Howard amassed his collection, many white folks thought nothing of removing Native American cultural objects and human remains from the landscape, whether legally or illegally. Seen as a dying culture, “Indians” were considered a relic of the past, whose concerns about their heritage didn’t matter.  Howard was no different. His collection contains human remains and may include sacred and funerary objects. Today’s professional archeologists, academics, and museum curators are respectful of Native Americans and their culture.

In 1990 Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to provide for “the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.” Museums and other institutions with Native American collections were required by the government to survey and report their holdings to the federal government and affiliated tribes. The Shiloh Museum submitted materials from the Guy Howard Collection and over the years has worked with several tribes—in particular, the Osage and Caddo Nations—regarding repatriation. More information about NAGPRA

In 2006, the Shiloh Museum worked with representatives from the Caddo Nation’s Cultural Preservation Office to repatriate human remains in the Guy Howard Collection. The Caddo representatives graciously agreed to a recorded interview with museum collections manager Carolyn Reno for inclusion in the museum’s podcast series.

CADDO REPATRIATION (2006 interview with representatives from the Caddo Nation’s Cultural Preservation Office)