When in Eureka Springs, just holler

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT) - Madeline S. Bridges pretty well nailed this quirky town when she wrote a friend and described Eureka Springs as "so deliciously irregular, its odd little passages and winding roads, its crooked streets, its steep ascents or descents, tempt you on and on ..."

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Her letter was written in 1903 and not much has changed. The town prides itself in being "deliciously irregular," and those crooked and winding streets are still lined by the Victorian cottages built by the first arrivals. They came in the 1880s for the healing waters of the 60 or so springs that seep from the limestone cliffs lining the hollow that cradles Eureka Springs.

Or, holler, as Sondra Torchia tells it.

"They called them hollers because if you yelled across, they could hear you," said Torchia, who gives walking tours of the town, sometimes in the period dress of eight women who lived here.

Torchia's tour headed deep into the hollow where the springs fed a small lake. "On March 7 of 1881, 22 stagecoaches arrived here," she said. "People from Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis would ride the train to Seligman, Mo., and then take the stagecoach 6 ˝ hours to get here.

"You'd get off the stage and they'd say, 'Hey, what ails you?' If you answered arthritis, they'd say, 'Oh, you gotta walk up the holler to Little Eureka Springs for arthritis.' There was a special spring for every ailment."

The railroad replaced stagecoaches, and the town grew as a destination, boasting 54 hotels at the turn of the 20th century. Five of the originals remain _ the Crescent, Basin Park, Grand Central, Palace and New Orleans. "Because there were so many fires, the only ones that lasted were made of rock or brick," Torchia said.

Miracle cures were reported, but Torchia speculated it was as much as the sick fleeing the polluted big cities and taking refuge in this secluded nook in the wilderness as any healing properties of the waters.

"They'd say, 'Drink four glasses of water, walk a mile and drink more water,'" Torchia said. "They're in this peaceful, stress-free environment. Now tell me, what healed them?"

The next wave of newcomers also came because of the peaceful setting. Eureka Springs is a magnet for artists, who make up nearly a third of the 2,278 residents. The serene setting inspires their creativity, and the magic of the Internet allows them to market their works to the outside world.

The winding, crooked streets of the downtown are lined with boutiques, restaurants and galleries that sell quality art, both locally produced and imported, and I went looking for treasures. Here are some I found:

_Quicksilver Art & Fine Craft Gallery at 73 Spring Street had a wall of "pig skin glass" plates in bold colors, priced at $79 each. They are made from reclaimed window panes, backed with tin foil, and placed in a kiln, which gives them a "slumped" shape. "You can make a big statement with a grouping of three for $270," gallery owner Steve Roberson said.

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_Around the corner, at 67 Spring Street, Zarks Fine Design Gallery had a shelf of what looked like Tiffany iridescent vases. They actually came from a California studio, and three of the most spectacular were priced from $260 to $325."

_EureKan Art Studio and Shop at 150 North Main Street features mostly local artists. "There are hundreds in this area _ not including performing artists and con artists," owner Ken Foggo said. My pick here was an exquisitely carved, etched and painted gourd with floral designs by artist Kate Venus, priced at $675.

_But my best finds were at Mitchell's Folly, a storefront jammed with everything from marble statues, hooked rugs and Indian artifacts to a stuffed white weasel for $275. Owner John Mitchell mistook me for a serious buyer and took me into his inner sanctum, where he keeps his collection of paintings, prints and posters by historic Ozark artists like Louis Freund.

Freund worked for the WPA during the Depression and was assigned to paint pictures of north Arkansas. He and his wife, Elsie, bought a Eureka Springs home formerly owned by saloon-smasher Carry Nation and started Eureka's first school of the arts. Many post offices are graced with murals by Freund.

Mitchell has several of his originals, including two ink sketches that he said were used as magazine illustrations.

The sketches include Freund's signature and notations about their locations. Priced at $9,000 for the pair, I've seen enough "Antique Roadshows" to know they probably were more valuable than the stocks in my 401(k).

For more information: Sondra Torchia is at 1-479-253-3410 and sondra.torchia@yahoo.com; Quicksilver is www.quicksilvergallery.com; EureKan Art is www.eurekanart.com; Zarks is www.zarksgallery.com; Mitchell's Folly is 1-479-253-7030.

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© 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.