Good Morning! I can't spend all day online today--Ingrid and I are planning to meet to work on Law Day: Outlaw Roundup, and I've got to go put some ads in the paper for Greg's business, so he'll get out of the house more often <BG>. But this morning's Springfield News-Leader had a good article on Eureka Springs, in Carroll Co. AR. I thought I'd just send the link, but it's not at the website. Since it's an AP article, I went to AP's website, and couldn't find it there, either. So... If you go to http://www.dogpile.com/ and type in "Eureka NEAR Springs", you'll get quite a few links to websites on Eureka Springs. Greg and I spent the 2nd night of our honeymoon there 2 1/2 years ago, in May. I've always loved the town, but have never gotten to explore it like I want to. It is called the "Little Switzerland of the Ozarks"; many of the homes are built chalet-style or are similar in architecture. You can get there by traveling Hwy 86 west off Hwy 65 in Taney County. Many of you know I just love traveling Hwy 86, for I go into one of those "time-traveling" modes, seeing the farms and hearing the wagons going down the road. You'll go to Hwy 13, turn north, then jog back west when Hwy 86 does a couple miles north of Blue Eye. If you get to the little town of Lampe in Stone County, you went too far north and have to turn around. You go pass Dogwood Canyon--where my Macombs lived--and come down into a long "valley", with the hills all around you--it's almost like being in the bottom of a bowl. Arkansas is just to the left; the trees next to the road aren't in AR, but that farmhouse down off in the holler probably is. Just west of Dogwood Canyon is an intersection that isn't marked "Nauvoo," but many maps show the old townsite still. There's an old store building south of the highway--one of these days, I'll get some pictures online of it. You get to Carr Lane, still traveling west--believe it or not, late afternoon/sundown is the best time to see this area, even traveling west, for the view is spectacular. After Carr Lane is Barry County; no towns, but the occasional cluster of businesses at various intersections and scattered through. You are reminded that this is Lake Country, because many of the businesses are boat- and tourist/fishing-oriented; mom-and-pop shops that have been handed down a couple of generations. Turn south on Co. Rd P--after a mile or so, you're in AR, and you're going downhill on AR St. Rd. 23. It's a gentle downhill, an old trail leading the easiest way down into a deep cut in the hills. You have a warning of the steepness of the hills by the narrow walls of the valley and the curves that can make you carsick--if you're traveling fast, which shouldn't be happening. Your first clue, besides the inevitable billboards, that you are close is the old spa. Eureka Springs, in its heyday of the late 1800s/early 1900s, was a major destination for those who could afford to "take the waters" for various afflictions. Its mineral waters were reputed to heal all sorts of illnesses, and there were various hospitals/sanatoriums in the town for the ill to stay at. Suddenly, there are houses looking down at you on the old road to your right, and you're there. The town is full of Victorian buildings, hairpin curves, and neat places that just hit you between the eyes. Long a destination for elopements, it is the location of the Carroll County Western District Courthouse, as well. The newspaper claims that 400 of the 1,900 residents are ordained ministers of some denomination or another, and they stay busy performing marriages (all that's required in Eureka Springs is proof of age in order to get married). Every thing is built on the side of the hills, with houses virtually on top of each other going all the way up. There is a 32 mile drive you can take that will go through the entire town, mapped and signed clearly. At the top of the "downtown" area, you meet Hwy 62, which is lined with motels and other tourist-oriented businesses along the ridge south of town. These businesses are newer than the old downtown, of course. But you still get an overall impression of compactness; it must be much like a city reaching up instead of sprawling out, for everything still seems to be "together". It's one of those places that you are drawn to, but it's not a place I could live...<BG> I love it down there, but have never been compelled to live there, for some reason. The article claims that many people are drawn to it, but not many can live there and make a living. Eureka Springs has a huge Blues Festival in May or June; pub crawls and the works. I can remember when the Street Rod Club, Hillbilly Wheels, that my folks belonged to cruised through there on a busy Sunday probably 25 years ago--it took over an hour for our group of roughly 12 cars, all pre-1949, to get through the cobbled streets, what with folks just staring and traffic almost at a standstill. The cars fit right in with the environment, but there weren't any trench-coated moonshine runners riding "shotgun", looking for threats from the competition. If you ever get the chance to go, and you don't suffer too much from claustrophobia--I'm telling you, compact and closed in describes it well--go visit. Then go out south to Quigley's Castle, a home built out of concrete and rocks by a woman who collected rocks and other outdoor items all her life. THAT is something to see... Vonda ListMom for MOTANEY and MO-AR-WRV at Rootsweb http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/

I will certainly spend some time in that area when I visit. Thanks, Charles > Greg and I spent the 2nd night of our honeymoon there 2 1/2 years ago, in > May. I've always loved the town, but have never gotten to explore it like I > want to. > It is called the "Little Switzerland of the Ozarks"; many of the homes are > built chalet-style or are similar in architecture. > You can get there by traveling Hwy 86 west off Hwy 65 in Taney County. Many > of you know I just love traveling Hwy 86, for I go into one of those > "time-traveling" modes, seeing the farms and hearing the wagons going down > the road. You'll go to Hwy 13, turn north, then jog back west when Hwy 86 > does a couple miles north of Blue Eye. If you get to the little town of > Lampe in Stone County, you went too far north and have to turn around. > You go pass Dogwood Canyon--where my Macombs lived--and come down into a > long "valley", with the hills all around you--it's almost like being in the > bottom of a bowl. Arkansas is just to the left; the trees next to the road > aren't in AR, but that farmhouse down off in the holler probably is. Just > west of Dogwood Canyon is an intersection that isn't marked "Nauvoo," but > many maps show the old townsite still. There's an old store building south > of the highway--one of these days, I'll get some pictures online of it.

I must send another message to youns. I now have another name to research.....WITT If it sounds familiar then yell real loud so I can hear you here on the East coast. serious now...I need to find some family. I was adopted. I want to find my biological roots. Charles