Tobe Smith saw the four men enter the bank and when they drew their guns he stepped on the burglar alarm which had connections at the Bank of Eureka Springs, a block up the street, and the Basin Park Hotel, the same distance in the other direction. The robbers did not know this but lined up the occupants of the bank, face to the wall, and proceeded to scoop up all available cash and bonds. While doing this Charlie Price noticed the clock on the wall. The hands stood at exactly 11:10 A.M. Time had played its trick.
In the meantime the alarm had caused a furor of excitement in town, and C. E. Burson of the Bank of Eureka Springs had sent a bullet from his pistol that punctured a rear tire of the bandit’s car. Young Hendrix, getting excited, started the car slowly down Spring Street but a bullet struck him as he reached the junction with Center Street and he turned the car into a railing at the head of a stairway. He was captured without offering resistance.
By this time the four bandits had left the bank with the money in a sack, taking two of the bank employees as hostages. They knew they would have to fight their way out and sought to escape down the stairway by the Times-Echo office which leads to Center Street. Guns were popping and bullets flying everywhere. Si Wilson was killed instantly, George Price died a few minutes after being taken to Dr. R. H. Huntington’s hospital, Charlie Price died from his wounds a few days later.
Cowan was wounded. He and Hendrix were sentenced to terms in the state penitentiary.
Eureka Springs citizens who battled with the outlaws were: Ernie Jordan, Joe McKimmey, Jess Littrell, Robert Bowman, Homer Brittan and Sam Harmon. The story of their courage in defeating this desperate gang without loss of a man was told in newspapers throughout the country. None of them were wounded except Ernie Jordan who received a powder burn in the face. F. O. Butt, Eureka Springs attorney, was president of the First National Bank at that time. He had his office over the bank building. He was glad to see the sack of money and bonds returned without loss. It had been dropped on the Center Street stairway during the fight.
XXI
INSPIRATION POINT
The Ozarks is a land of dreams. Some of them succeed, some fail. Traveling through the hill country we find numerous ruins of partially built projects, that reveal the urge of man to build and perpetuate. “Coin” Harvey’s Pyramid at Monte Ne, the Kingston Project in Madison County, the old Chautauqua Assembly at Sulphur Springs, the numerous old hotels at once-popular watering places, ghosts of a past era when the water cure was a national fad, social and cultural colonies, the lengthened shadows of promoters or reformers, that existed for a few years and then passed into oblivion. These are monuments to dreams that failed or prospered for a season and then passed out.
On the other hand there are numerous active enterprises in the hills such as Ted Richmond’s Wilderness Library in Newton County, and the famed “School of the Ozarks” near Hollister, Missouri. Other projects have been built with broad business perspective such as the town of Bull Shoals. Churches have been successful in establishing permanent institutions such as the Sequoyah Assembly at Fayetteville and the Subiaco Academy in Logan County. Some projects with more than local interest were started by one person and completed by others.
The unique stone building called “The Castle,” located at Inspiration Point in Carroll County, on U. S. Highway 62, six miles west of Eureka Springs, was originally the dream of a Texas inventor and oil man. In the 1920’s, W. O. Mowers of Dallas selected this scenic point as the site of a palatial country home because of its comparative isolation and the view of White River 500 feet below. Being a world traveler, it reminded him of scenery on the Rhine River in Germany with which he was familiar, and he visualized the replica of an old German castle. The rock used in the construction of the building was quarried near the village of Beaver, five miles away. Each stone was cut to fit a certain place in the structure and was put together like a jigsaw puzzle. The living room was made 30 by 44 feet, with a huge fireplace at each end. Pointed rock covered the exterior, following an Egyptian plan of architecture.
After spending about $80,000 on the project the Texas man was unable to complete it. In 1932, the building and several hundred acres of land were purchased by Charles Reign Scoville, a noted traveling Evangelist, of the Christian Church. He completed the building and made it a regional center for evangelism and religious training. This scenic spot overlooking the river and the spacious valley was a great inspiration to the preacher-evangelist, so he named it Inspiration Point. This name has now become a permanent geographical feature. Mr. Scoville lived only a few years to enjoy his dream.