There are forty-two springs within the corporate limits of Eureka Springs. Most of these belong to the city and are included in the municipal park system. A few are privately owned such as Ozarka in Mill Hollow, Congress, Lion, Carry Nation and Cold Spring on East Mountain. Sam A. Leath has counted and named sixty-three springs within a one-mile radius of the center of town and it is said that there are about 1200 springs in the Western District of Carroll County.

The Basin Spring, so called because of the peculiar depression in the limestone rock, was first called the Indian Healing Spring and discovered by a pioneer hunter, Dr. Alvah Jackson, in 1854. It comes from a cave in the cliff-side and in the early days made a cataract down the mountain to the valley floor where it joined Little Leatherwood Creek. About one hundred feet below the cave that houses the spring is a flat rock, now covered with a deep layer of concrete. In this rock, the Indians cut two basins, one about eighteen inches in diameter and twelve inches deep, the other, twelve feet farther down, about five feet in length and ten inches deep. The larger basin was partially destroyed by falling rock before the spring was discovered by white men. The smaller basin is still in existence at the bottom of the Wishing Well. The fountain from this spring is surrounded by the Basin Circle Park with band stand, and seats for those who like to loiter in a restful, picturesque environment.

Sweet Spring is on Spring street around the corner from the post office. Its original position was in the hollow about two hundred yards below its present site. When Spring Street was laid out by Powell Clayton and other city officials in the early eighties, the stream of water was tapped and a stone pit erected with steps leading down to the fountain. The spring itself was imprisoned in stone for sanitary reasons. No one seems to know the origin of the name Sweet for this spring. Benches beneath the hard maple and ginkgo trees surround this spring and it is a cool spot for summer loafing.

In the early days, Harding Spring ranked next to Basin in importance. It has supplied the Palace Bath House with water for bathing for almost a half a century. It flows from a picturesque cliff on Spring Street with a rock projection called Lover’s Leap a few feet away. It is one of the most photographed spots in Eureka Springs.

Congress Spring at the rear of the Congress Spring apartments is “honey out of the rock” for those who like top quality aqua pura. It comes from a cave and is said to have been discovered by workmen while blasting rock on Spring Street. Standing at the spring one may look skyward and observe a street seventy feet directly above. The rock formation at this point is a miniature Gibraltar.

Crescent Spring, between the Carnegie Library and Presbyterian Church, derived its name from the large crescent-shaped ledge of rocks over which it originally flowed for a distance of fifteen feet. It is now walled in stone and sheltered with a pointed roofed pagoda.

Continuing on Spring Street, Grotto Spring “on the boulevard” is next. It has a picturesque position in the mountain side, fronted with a lane of sycamore trees. The spring was named because of its location in a natural stone grotto.

On East Mountain there is water almost everywhere. Some of the best known springs, each with its individual scenic setting, are: Cave, Little Saucer, Big Saucer, Little Eureka, Onyx, Carry Nation, Soldier and Cold. Cave spring, near the home of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Ward Dresbach, flows a stream of pure cold water from a narrow cave. Little Eureka has a small stream and never goes dry. This spring is known for the purity of its waters (5½ grains of solids to the gallon) and many people swear by it. It is said that Little Eureka water won second place in a world wide contest at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Water from a spring in Switzerland won first.

The Carry A. Nation spring flows from a cave which the crusader used as an “ice box” during her sojourn in Eureka Springs (1908-11). This cave has a constant temperature the year ’round and is an ideal natural refrigerator. In the days preceding artificial refrigeration, the East Mountain folks made use of Carry’s cave for storing milk, butter and other perishables. The water from the cave spring has been piped across the street to Hatchet Hall, which is now a museum and art center, owned by the artists, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Freund.

Onyx Spring comes from a cave in which onyx was once secured for making jewelry. It was formerly called Laundry Spring because of its popularity as a place for washing clothes. A sarvis tree now grows from the rock directly over the spring.

Soldier Spring is at the entrance of a small cave at the west end of Nut Street on East Mountain. According to legend, two bushwackers were killed at the entrance of this cave by federal soldiers during the Civil War. A bushwacker is an outlawish fellow who hides behind a bush and takes a “whack” at you with his rifle gun. In this instance, the soldiers got the first whack and the stream from the cave was named Soldier Spring. For several years the large oak tree across the road from the spring was a natural bee tree and a swarm of honey-makers occupied it each season. Not many modern towns can boost of a bee tree within the city limits.

In Mill Hollow we have the famous Ozarka Spring, the only Eureka Springs water that is commercialized. It is shipped in glass or enamel-lined railway cars to many cities in the mid-west. Ozarka is a liquid treasure from nature’s vast laboratory. Other springs in the vicinity are Little Ozarka, Minnehaha with its Indian legend, and the Bancroft Springs.

Magnetic Spring is one of the most popular springs in the city. The water was once thought to be radio-active and old-timers claimed it would magnetize a knife blade. It is a popular place for picnickers and the city has provided a shelter-house with tables, barbecue pit and other facilities. Magnetic Hollow has other springs such as Mystic, which flows from a picturesque cliff, and Bell Spring which makes a musical sound like the tinkling of a bell. An iron and sulphur spring was once located near the railway depot, but is not now flowing.

To the west and south of the city, within walking distance, are the famous Oil and Johnson springs and sixteen springs that feed the city lake that supplies the municipal water system. A bathhouse once stood under the cliff between Johnson and Oil Springs. The oil spring is peculiar in that the waters have an oleaginous feeling when rubbed between the hands. It was once considered beneficial in diseases of the scalp.

Lion Spring flows from the cliff near the back door of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Wheeler, publishers of the Eureka Springs Times-Echo. For many years the Lion Spring Hotel, operated by “Mother” Belden, was located on this site. A stone Lion’s head is set up as a dispensary and the water flows through its mouth. This spring once supplied a stream of water for Dr. Alvah Jackson’s primitive bathhouse in the rock shelter fifty feet below. A wash-tub was secured from a sugar camp on Keel’s Creek and this, with half-a-dozen canteens, constituted the outfit of the first water-cure establishment in this part of the state.

Calip Spring is on South Main Street near the Elk’s Club. It supplied the community watering trough in the early days of the town. Fishermen now use this trough as a depository for minnows. Gadd Spring is farther north on Main Street and is housed in a rock edifice made from crystal and other odd-shaped rocks.

In regard to the springs at Eureka, L. J. Kolklosh wrote in 1881:

“No other springs in the world have had so many cures and such a reputation in so short a time as the Eureka Springs of Arkansas. History does not record an equal.... Eureka had made a name that has been heard throughout Christendom.”