History of a two-year-old
What do you think might be the shortest amount of time between a city’s founding and the first history written about it?
I don’t know if Eureka Springs is a candidate, but it’s impressive in any case. The oldest accounts I’ve been able to find – one a “complete history” – were published in 1881, barely two years after Judge Saunders’ cure triggered a rush.
Dr. John W. Thrailkill’s studious “Eureka Springs (Arkansas) as a Resort for Invalids” and L. J. Kalklosch’s more rogueish “The Healing Fountain” both provide insight into the town’s heady early days.
Thanks to Thrailkill, I learned that Eureka Springs was in the running to be the site of the state’s first “lunatic asylum,” which ended up being built in Little Rock. (That one’s too easy. I’ll let you come up with your own joke.)
His pamphlet chronicled cures of conditions of all kinds. For example: “No medical treatment I have ever known equals these springs in curing old cases of constipation of the bowels. Even old persons in whom the complaint is often regarded as incurable, experience great relief from the water.”
Kalklosch is the main source for a chapter in my (perpetually) upcoming book, “Welcome to Eureka Springs: The I-Sh*t-You-Not History of America’s Quirkiest Town.” It’s the chapter I read at Poetluck last week, about Major Isaac Newton Armstrong, who laid out the town’s streets. Anyone who’s walked those streets probably wonders what the heck he was thinking. That chapter is for you.
Another early history was “Cutter’s Guide to the Eureka Springs of Arkansas” from 1884, which I reviewed on Goodreads a while back.
All were fun reads, and helpful for my book, which should be available next spring. That seems far away, but knowing how much work remains even after the writing is done, I think it’s realistic.
