Eureka Springs has had many distinguished visitors during its seventy-five years of history. Some of them made only brief visits to our scenic city while others spent several weeks and returned from year to year. One of them who thought of Eureka Springs as an earthly paradise was the chewing gum king, William Wrigley, Jr.

Mr. Wrigley first visited Eureka Springs in 1902 and put up at the Thatch Hotel where he spent most of the winter. He returned in the autumn of 1903 and spent about three months at the Chautauqua Hotel, later moving to a cottage on Linwood Avenue. It has been said that no greater admirer of scenic beauty ever came to the Ozarks than William Wrigley.

His greatest pleasure was to get out on the trails on horseback with Sam Leath, then acting as guide in charge of the Eureka Springs Bureau of Information and the Crescent stables. A canyon five miles west of the city was named after him for this was one of the spots he especially enjoyed.

The chewing gum king, whose net income was $1,125,000 in 1904, took a liking to Eureka Springs and proposed to buy all the land within a radius of three miles of the city and make it into a public park if the city authorities would agree to keep it policed and free from junk and garbage. The hills and valleys were then covered with vast growths of virgin timber which Mr. Wrigley wished to preserve. But the city government turned him down and he went to Catalina Island, off the California coast, where he spent millions in development. Many noted writers such as Zane Grey and Mary Roberts Rhinehart located on the island as a result of his project.

Another famous visitor was the landscape artist, F. S. VanNess who came to Eureka Springs from Chicago in October, 1902. Sam Leath took him on twenty-eight rides within two weeks, observing the splendor of the Flaming Fall Revue, but the artist did not paint a single picture. When Mr. Leath asked him why he did not paint he replied that the color was beyond his reach; that it would be an insult to the Creator to try to put it on canvas. Later, after the color had faded, he returned to the Ozarks and Mr. Leath guided him over the same route. This time he painted profusely, both landscapes and items of human interest. Two of his paintings may be seen today in the lobby of the Basin Park Hotel. One portrays a group of gamblers seated around a table, the other is that of old Dr. Messick on his burro which was painted in November, 1902. Dr. Messick was a retired Chicago doctor who “went native” and spent his last days living and practicing medicine in the hills near Eureka Springs.