Font of knowledge -- June Westphal, left, and Kate Cooper recently completed a database called "The Springs of Eureka Springs" and produced a DVD containing 3,000 pieces of information, including photographs and documents, detailing the history of Eureka's springs. A reception for the DVD's release will be held Tuesday, Aug. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center. Photo by Kathryn Lucariello [Order this photo]

EUREKA SPRINGS -- Researchers interested in the springs of Eureka Springs now have a convenient source for their inquiries: "The Springs of Eureka Springs," a DVD database of more than 3,000 source materials gathered by June Westphal and Kate Cooper.

The DVD is an archive of more than 600 photographs and 2,400 pages of documents from several different sources.

Westphal the historian

"We started talking about this four years ago," said Westphal, who was born near Eureka Springs and whose family has been here for five generations.

Co-author of the "Eureka Springs Pictorial History," Westphal was the executive director of the Eureka Springs Centennial (1979) and Eureka Springs Historical Museum.

She served on the Eureka Springs City Council and the Historic District Commission and was an original founder of the Eureka Springs Historical Museum in 1971.

She has consulted on a Historic Plaque Project and has written historical text for more than 30 plaques which can be seen on structures around Eureka Springs.

Humanities grants

With the help of Historic Eureka Springs Preservation Officer Glenna Booth, who served as the project director, Westphal and Cooper received a planning grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council to figure out how to go about doing the project.

Later they received a larger grant, for $4,000, from the Council again to do the work, purchase a laptop computer and scanner and cover costs associated with the research, including the first 50 DVDs made. The grants were matched with in-kind local services and labor.

Westphal said they approached the Humanities Council for the grant because the focus of the project is how people interact with the springs.

"In Eureka Springs, the springs are the reason for our existence," she said. "People have interacted with the springs since the beginning. It's the everyday interaction with the springs that made this a humanities project. There are several thousand photos of people and springs, and I know there are many of just the springs."

In May 2007 they announced the project to the community and began their research in July.

Source materials

Local sources of photos and information include the Bank of Eureka Springs, the Eureka Springs Historical Museum, the Carnegie Public Library, private collections and others. Local Springs Committee chairman Barbara Harmony consulted on the project also.

City Clerk Mary Jean Sell was especially helpful, Cooper said, with city records and ordinances about reservations of the springs and land around the springs.

"She went through the handwritten ordinances in the city vault and transcribed all of those for us," she said. "She's been a tremendous resource."

The women also visited the Special Collections of the University of Arkansas, and the Arkansas History Commission, which have many private collections of writers and authors.

They found copies of old Eureka Springs guidebooks going back to 1880.

"There are accounts of what was happening as it was happening," Westphal said.

Some of the sources, such as the well-known book "The Healing Fountain," by L.J. Kalklosch, published in 1881, are so fragile that scanning was not possible, and they had to be photographed, Cooper said.

Sadly, there are few newspaper accounts because most of the archived newspapers were burned in the many fires Eureka Springs suffered over the years, Westphal said. The library had the best collection of newspapers on microfilm, and even then, many of those were hard to read.

Good teamwork

Westphal and Cooper made a great team working on this project, Westphal said. The two had worked together on other projects, including a project several years ago on the Oak Hill Grange.

"From 40 years of research, I knew there was a great deal of material, and it was important for people to be able to access it," Westphal said. "Kate's the technology person."

A few years ago, a project like this would have been completed by the publication of a book, Westphal noted. And a lot would have been left out because of limited space. The 2.3 gigabyte DVD-ROM allows the inclusion of thousands of pieces of information.

Westphal said she grew up with the legends of the Native Americans and thousands of whites who came to Eureka because of the stories of the healing springs.

"I found more verification of the story I'd come to know about the springs," she said.

Early legends and documents

Many different Native nations lived or came through here: the Osage, the Delaware who lived here during Colonial times, the Sioux and others. Some of the legends of the healing power of the springs were known as far away as Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York.

Early newspaper stories were done by the Arkansas Gazette; the New York Daily Graphic, which did a full Sunday feature; St. Louis and Chicago papers and others.

A healing place

Westphal said the healing of the springs could not only be attributed to the clean water itself but to the clean air and beauty of the environment here that made people want to get out and exercise, often walking from spring to spring.

The research includes accounts of people who were healed, sometimes from near fatal declines, after coming here.

Cooper noted there was a huge hydrology study done in 1980-81. The study counted 110 different springs, seeps and wells.

"It gave us a complete assessment of the springs, recharge zones, water quality and so on," Westphal said.

Cooper said, "The biologist on the Springs Committee, Andrea Radwell, said the one thing needed was historical information on the springs. That's what our project is."

There are many different lists of the springs and what they were called at various times, Westphal said.

This work has just begun

One thing both Westphal and Cooper are clear on is that the work is unfinished.

"Still at this moment I could say I'd find more materials," Westphal said. "This is a huge collection, but it is not done."

"The next stage we're hoping for is that someone will make a movie out of all this," Cooper said, "and maybe a coffee table book or an e-book."

The public is invited to attend a reception for "The Springs of Eureka Springs" project on Tuesday, Aug. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center in Eureka Springs.

Copies of the first 50 DVDs will be available at the Historical Museum, Carnegie Library, City Hall, Springs Committee (Parks and Recreation Commission), National Water Center and local schools.

The disks will also be distributed to the Arkansas History Commission, University of Arkansas Library Special Collections, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Shiloh Museum and other libraries and museums.

For further information or to get involved in future springs history projects, call the Eureka Springs Historical Museum at 253-9417.