“About the first of July, 1879, Judge Saunders erected the first ‘shanty’ for the better protection of his family. Some people now ventured the opinion that a village would grow up here, but no one was ‘silly’ enough to predict a city of tens of thousands. Even a year later the absurdity of building a city in such a place, with no inducement but the water, was talked of by many. The water has, however, proved to be quite sufficient to induce the building of a city.
“In August (1879) it presented the appearance of a camp meeting ground and everybody was at the height of enjoyment. People were camping in sheds, tents, wagons and all manner of temporary shelters; some were living in the open air with nothing but the canopy of heaven to shelter them. There was nothing to do but to eat, drink and pass the time away in social chat, telling, perchance of the ancient legends of the ‘Fountain of Youth,’ the late discovery, their afflictions and, the most important, their delivery from disease.
“To give it still more the appearance of an old time camp meeting, ministers of the gospel were here, and preaching was not uncommon. The preacher’s stand was frequently a large rock, and the gravelly hillsides answered for seats to accommodate the audience. The hillsides were spotted with camp fires to warm the usual ‘snack’ or to bake the ‘Johnny cake,’ as up to that time there were no boarding accommodations and each visitor brought his provisions with him. One of these fires had burned a tree partly off at its base, and while nearly all were engaged in the noon-day repast, a tree fell and struck the wife of Professor Clark of Berryville, causing her death in a short time. This was the first death at the famous springs, and a very sad one. The remains were taken to Berryville and interred there, to rest until it shall so please the Almighty Being to give all mortals power to put on immortality.
“Judge Saunders’ shanty was soon followed by another, and another, until the idea of a grocery suggested itself to Mr. O. D. Thornton. People were coming in daily and when their provisions failed they were compelled to go out for a new supply. This Mr. Thornton decided to remedy, at least in the line of groceries. Soon a rough plank house was erected near the spring and the first stock of groceries brought to Eureka Springs, amounting possibly to $200. People began to rush in and plank or box houses were soon scattered over the hillsides and across the gulches, all trying to get as near the spring as possible without thought or regard of system or anything.”[12]
Mr. Kalklosch continues about the growth of the town and mentions the importance of the saw mills operated by Mrs. Massman and Mr. Van Winkle. The first boarding house was set up by a Mrs. King from Washburn, Missouri. She could accommodate only five or six boarders and was always full to capacity. Then the Montgomery Brothers put in a stock of merchandise and did a thriving business.
IX
JOHN GASKINS—BEAR HUNTER
Among the pioneers who settled in the vicinity of the Indian Healing Spring before the town of Eureka Springs was founded was the Gaskin family who located on Leatherwood Creek in 1856. “Uncle Johnny” as he was affectionately called by his friends, was one of the famous bear hunters of the Ozarks and he left a record of his hunting adventures in a booklet entitled, “Life and Adventures of John Gaskins in the Early History of Northwest Arkansas.” This little book, published at Eureka Springs in 1893, tells the Gaskin story from the time the family moved from Washington County, Indiana to Carroll County, Arkansas in 1839, up to and beyond the founding of Eureka Springs half a century later. Most of it consists of his hunting escapades (he killed 200 bears in thirty years), but there are some references to his neighbors and the economic set-up of that day. In the introduction he tells about the discovery of the springs and the community’s early development.
“As I was one of the first settlers in the country, living along the creek three miles below Eureka Springs for thirty-eight years, I will tell something about the discovery of that place.
“I had hunted all over these mountains—killed bears and panthers and many other wild animals in nearly every gulch and cave in that vicinity. I have killed nine bears in the hollow near the Dairy Spring and many deer, for that was a good place for them. My regular stopping place was the Rock House, or cave, above the Basin Spring in which Alvah Jackson camped on his hunting trips. We often camped there, using the Basin water for our coffee and never imagining it was more than pure water, until Uncle Alvah camped there with them. They simply dipped the water up from the little basin.
“Then Uncle Alvah began to use the water for other diseases, finding that it was beneficial. He induced Judge Saunders and Mr. Whitson to go there in the summer of ’79. Then others began to come and were cured and benefitted; the whole sides of the mountains were covered with tents.