Out of Arkansas - Our Town

Four dates sum up the beginnings of our town and why it looks as it does today. Primary sources for this article include a Federal decree and A Fame Not Easily Forgotten, an excellent history of Eureka for sale at the Historical Museum.

July 4, 1879 -- The community was named Eureka Springs. Only 500 crowded and cramped houses were prepared for winter, but those numbers belied the estimated population boom of 10-to-12,000 between 1879 and 1880. Twelve men "elected" to form a committee during a mass meeting in October gathered signatures to petition the State, praying to incorporate Eureka Springs as a city.

While waiting for the State's decision, the committee engaged a surveyor, I.M. Armstrong, using these guidelines: (1) Armstrong would receive one dollar per lot sold. (2) No party could buy more than two lots, which foiled speculators from buying large tracts. (3) A lot would measure 40x40 feet. (4) Streets would measure 30 feet wide and 80 feet between other streets and alleys. [Therefore two 40x40 lots stretched between streets, etc. Main was the first street surveyed, and a large reservation was surveyed above Basin [Park] Spring.

February 14, 1880 -- The community was incorporated as a city after a federal census reported 3,000 legal voters, those who had lived in the State one year, in Carroll County six months, and in the community for one month.

As for Armstrong, he left his hodgepodge for "healther climes" in mid-winter after making about $1,500 from lots amounting to substantially less.

April 6, 1885 -- The [federal court] Compromised Act settled a land dispute that began in 1883 between the Eureka Springs Improvement Company led by the Company chairman, Powell Clayton, challenging the City for 320 acres of the downtown, which the Company bought from Missouri speculators R.J. Alexander and J. Linzee.

This lawsuit's legacy to the City was by federal decree: "All reservations, including the springs thereon, shall be deeded without charge by the trustees to the City of Eureka Springs in trust, for the free use of the public forever." That, folks, is a gigantic and permanent gift of wonderous green spaces, which we should extend with our present green zones by making them also permanent.

August 3, 1894 -- Ordinance 0149: "Section Ten In The City Of Eureka Springs, Ark., Made By The Eureka Improvement Co. Known As The Clayton Survey, And Adopting And Approving The Riley Map Of Said City."

Essentially, Riley cleaned up Armstrong's mess by codifying lots with numbered blocks and by sewing up patchworks of streets held together by imagination.

During the year 1893, before this ordinance was passed, the City Council appointed a committee, the Board of Public Affairs, chaired by Powell Clayton. His Improvement Company was already the cash engine for the City's growth. His new board position now had the indirect, influential political power of taxing, and therefore the town's infrastructure blossomed, including streets, sidewalks, walls, utilities, trolleys, and consequently, Public Health, Safety and General Welfare.

The rest is a visible history of our town.