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I grew up in the small town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is located in the northwest corner of the state about 15 miles south of the Missouri border and about 45 miles east of Fayetteville, Ar. It is the home of the Passion Play and Beaver Dam and is one of Arkansas's major tourist attractions.

Eureka Springs is a very scenic town and is unlike any other. There are (supposed to be) 63 springs within the city limits although most, if not all, of them have been capped off and replaced with an ordinary drinking fountain. There are no stop lights in the town and no two streets cross each other at right angles. There are several entries in the Guiness Book of World Records having to do with Eureka Springs. A couple of them are: The Basin Park Hotel with 8 stories - all 8 being "ground floors" because they all have access to the steep "bluff" behind it via a short fire escape bridge, and the St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church - the only church that you enter through the Bell Tower.

Lovely victorian homes abound with a countless supply of Bread and Breakfast establishments. You can wander through the shops "downtown" and enjoy art, hand-crafted jewelry and leather goods, buy a tee shirt, or look through a variety of specialty shops as well as the more ordinary souvenirs type shops. You could sit and relax in Basin Park, while the others shop, and watch the traffic and people. Many times during the summer various types of entertainment is performed on the stage in the Park. If you are lucky you may get a chance to watch the folks from The Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony perform several short skits there. If you like opera they have performances every summer at Inspiration Point in their open-air theatre. The scenery from Inspiration Point is not bad either.

If your wondering where the best places to eat are, check out Ermilio's Italian Restaraunt on Hwy 62B. They have the best Italian cuisine around. The Cottage Inn west of town on Hwy 62 and the local's hangout, Sparky's, are also very good. If you like barbeque, you can't beat Bubba's. They may not look famous but they are.

Eureka Springs in the "off-season", my favorite time to visit.

The Great Passion Play

Here are several links to information on Eureka Springs. Eureka Springs may have more web pages dedicated to it than any town of it's size.

Harrison Sutcliffe
hsutcliffe_99@yahoo.com

Copyright © 1996-2003 Harrison Sutcliffe
Most recent revision March 1, 2003