EUREKA SPRINGS -- In an impermanent world, Bill Taylor built things that last.

  After 27 years engaged in a back-breaking labor of love, stone mason and landscape artist Bill Taylor is retiring.

  "I feel profoundly complimented when people tell me that my work looks as if it has always been there," Taylor said. "Most of my work is dry-stacked, since that gives it a look of massive solidity. I consider my job has been recognizing the character and strength of each stone and how its shape relates in juxtaposition to the next stone's shape in a graceful and harmonious manner."

  Taylor has left a lasting legacy in stone in Eureka Springs, Holiday Island and the surrounding area.

His art in his ancestry

  Regarding his background, Taylor said, "I have studied art all my life and graduated from the Dallas Art Institute. Actually, though, I feel it is a natural trait, a gift from my ancient ancestors, all from the British Isles, whose blood, now coursing through my veins, provides me with this natural instinct. The more I have learned to trust this natural instinct, the better my designs have become."

  Although Taylor turned 58 on April 27 and his bones and joints can no longer withstand the intense strain such heavy work requires, Taylor has no intention of letting retirement slow him down.

  "My mother's family, the Morrises and the Maples, have lived in Carroll County since the 1830s," Taylor said. "Being the great-grandson of Rep. Jordan Morris, the first Arkansas Congressman to represent Eureka Springs following its founding in 1879, I plan to devote more of my time now to the preservation of Carroll County's extraordinary history. I have written and contributed several articles and many very old family photographs to three books published by the Carroll County Historical and Genealogical Society."

Texas roots

  Taylor is currently working on an extensive exhibit for the north Montague County Historical Museum in Nocona, Texas.

  "My father's family has lived in Montague County at Spanish Fort, the oldest town in Texas, for five generations," Taylor explained. "The late Lindell O'Neal, a close family friend from Spanish Fort who founded O'Neal Oil, bequeathed the county the means to build a beautiful new museum.

  "My main priority now is preserving the histories of both sides of my family and their unique ancestral homes. This is the only means available to me, if only in a symbolic way, of thanking them for the extraordinary heritage and upbringing they have so selflessly provided for me."