September 29th - October 1st - Eureka Springs, Arkansas Trip

On the 29th we decided to take a trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas with our friends, John and Carlene, and my sister, Renee, and her husband, Jim. None of us had been there before.  When Eureka Springs was founded the primary means of traveling there was by train so the first day we rode the "Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas Railroad" excursion train. On it we learned a little history of the train era and the Eureka Springs area. Here is a picture of the passenger car which is now pulled by a yard dog.

The whole train operation is privately owned and in need of a lot of maintenance. Here is a picture of the side of the depot with paint peeling everywhere.

The passenger car we rode in was built in the 1930s and has not been restored in order to give riders an idea of what it was like in that time to travel there by train. Here is a picture of the interior. It was nothing fancy and you can see the heat source, a wood stove, on the right.

The backs of the seats flipped from one side to the other so you could be facing forward no matter which way the train was headed. Here is a picture of Kelly and I and one of Carlene and John taken while we were waiting to head up the tracks. Renee and Jim did not arrive until after the train ride.

It was about an hour long trip and informative. At the end of the line the train stopped and everyone got off so we could all lay coins on the track and have the train run over them. Everyone always wanted to do that right? Here are our coins before and after. Hardly recognizable.

Our next venture was a short drive to the privately owned Thorncrown Chapel built in the woods. It was quite impressive and the architect won several awards for the design. Here are some pictures. Very serene with a view of the forest in all directions.

We then headed to the condo at Holiday Island. Nothing special about the condo except it had a nice lake view. I didn't realize that Table Rock Lake came down into Arkansas. Here is a picture of the view from or deck. 

The next day we headed to the Crystal River Museum of Modern Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was built to display the artwork collected by one of the Walton (Walmart) heirs. I must say the museum and the artwork were outstanding. Here is a picture of a stainless steel tree in the circle as you approach the entrance. It was about forty feet tall.

You can see construction equipment on the left. The museum is undergoing a major remodeling even though it is not that old. The museum is built over a creek which is dammed up in that area. Here are a couple of pictures from the center dining area.

The collection of art was quite impressive with works of American art from the time of the American Revolution until today. Even the dining area is impressive Here is a picture of it spanning the water.

After we departed the museum we drove into downtown Bentonville to see the original "Walton" store and the Walmart Museum. We could not go into the museum or the store, both were closed due to Covid. In front of the Walton five and dime is Sam Walton's truck, which he drove until he died.

From Bentonville we headed back to Eureka Springs to take a tram tour of the city. The tour lasted about an hour and a half and wound around the city highlighting the many Victorian homes built into the sides of the limestone bluff. This picture is of one of the original cabins that were built for tourists back in the 1930s. It is a far cry from our condo.

Here are some pictures of the many houses dating back to the 1880s. The entire downtown area is a historical district and everything has to comply strictly with their regulations.

There are virtually no "flat" areas in Eureka Springs. The streets wind along the limestone bluff in layers connected by hairpin turns. Here is a picture of a typical street near downtown. The house, which looks like it on top of the first tram car, is actually built on top of the stone ledge that juts out. You can readily see the rock formation sticking out over the sidewalk.

The yellow house on the left is actually three stories tall, with two stories lower than this street level. A very common design here to accommodate living on a steep bluff.

Here is a picture of some lots for sale. They literally have about ten feet of area level with the street and the rest just drops off into the ravine. You can see the street below in the second picture. A challenging place to build for sure.

This huge house up on a hill was slated for demolition in Missouri some years ago. Someone bought it, disassembled it, and reassembled it in Eureka Springs. It is magnificent. We would have loved to have been able to go inside for a tour but it is privately owned.

One tram stop was at the "Grotto Spring", one of several original springs in town which were thought to have medicinal benefits. It was quite a free-flowing spring but the city has diverted the water to keep it from being polluted. There is virtually no water there now, as you can see in the second picture, but on the ceiling is a fault crack which may prove interesting for the entire town in the future. 

On the left in this picture is the main entrance of the Basin Park Hotel. The building in the wedge is the oldest hotel. You can see how the streets fork off in layers - one going up and one going down.

The Basin Park Hotel is seven stories tall and opens on ground level at each story. This put it in the book of world records. Here is a view of the Basin Park Hotel from a couple of streets below.

There are no right angle turns in the entire town. Between the hairpin turns and narrow streets it is certainly not RV friendly. Homer would not have enjoyed the trip although he would have loved the perfect weather we had the entire time.