10 things you might miss when exploring Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Eureka Springs offers unusual rewards for people who look up, look down, and occasionally turn around to see where they’ve been. Hills, curves, and hidden places keep some of the most interesting details from revealing themselves at first glance.

Here are ten things you might miss if you only follow the street and the shop windows.

1. The springs that started it all

There are 60 healing springs tucked into the mountain-sides throughout the historic district. Stone bluffs, fun names, and beautiful pocket settings tell the story of the health resort that grew into Eureka Springs. There are eight springs visited on our self-guided tour— just not all at once, of course. None are potable as they were in the Victorian era, although some have city water fountains.

One of the largest is Blue Spring, with 38 million gallons of cold, clear water bubbling up every day into a trout-filled lagoon. It is well worth the short drive and admission. On the National Register of Historic Places, this beautiful heritage garden is on land nurtured by the Cherokee people during the Trail of Tears. Visit them all and pick your favorite. If you can!

2. Old signs still clinging to buildings

Faded advertisements—often called ghost signs—survive on several buildings. Some are easy to spot; others are hidden by trees and stairs. Call “wall dogs” back in the Victorian era, building advertisements were a popular way to advertise your business. We hunt down three on our self-guided tour, but there are many. Can you find more?

3. Art under your feet

Not all Eureka Springs artwork hangs on a wall. Look closely at stairways, sidewalks, walls, and windows transformed by creative hands. We explore some on our self-guided Art Walk and encourage you to make a scavenger hunt for hidden mosaics, crystals, and painted rocks tucked into walls and cubby-holes. Take a picture, re-hide them, or add something new. What will you find on your hunt for the unusual?

4. Tiny doors with no ordinary address

They come and they go with weather and whim, but fairy house doors are hidden all over Eureka Springs. Look in unexpected places to spot one. Maybe even leave a trinket for the fae living within. The best way to discover a fairy door is to lower your gaze now and then—but never your expectations.

5. Walking bridges carrying one street over another

Because Eureka Springs has always been a walking town stretched between two mountain tops, bridges and stair-steps were essential. At one time, there were several bridges that carried visitors from one street to another over the “holler” below. Now only a couple remain, and we cross both of them in our self-paced adventures. The ground is still as steep as it ever was, and most of us wish the bridges were still in place.

6. Architectural leftovers from earlier Eureka

Eureka Springs has restaurants that are now underground. Stained glass in sidewalks. Creeks that run under buildings and then out the other end. The town is full of cast-iron columns, pressed-metal ceilings, and picturesque storefronts. Almost every building has a history reaching back to the 1890s, and some have several. A building on Spring Street might have another address on Main Street. A store on one level may have a secret entrance on another. Buildings are built right into stone bluffs, and some staircases are actually named streets. The architectural remnants of early Eureka still cling to steep streets and hillsides in a hodgepodge of determination and gravity. All of it is yours to explore—and to wonder about life in another time.

7. Hidden stairways you’re invited to climb

Most of the stairways in Eureka Springs are public and open for exploration. A closed gate would be your clue that the stairs are private. Our self-guided tours climb several to explore what’s above or below and most of them have names: Jacob’s Ladder, Rainbow Stairs, the Up Stair, Basin Spring Avenue, Old Brick School, Crystal Terrace, Crescent Spring Stair, Tibbs Alley, First Street Stairs, and Magnetic Spring Skyway. See how many you can find. See how many you can climb.

8. Views from the rooftops

Some of our favorite scenic views are from rooftops and balconies. Check out the balcony at the Basin Park, the deck and patio at Local Flavor Cafe, the bluffs above Basin Spring Park, the view from both Sweet Spring and Harding, the fourth-floor balcony at the Crescent Hotel, the overlook at East Mountain, the Christ of the Ozarks statue, plus many vistas from Eureka’s quaint lodging options. The fun thing about Eureka views is that they change with every season.

9. Water running beneath the town

Eureka Springs is the town that water built, although much of it is now hidden. Leatherwood Creek runs under both the courthouse and the auditorium. It’s even visible under the floor at the Mud Street Annex Café. It disappears underground before reappearing downstream to run beside Main Street before finding its way to Table Rock Lake at Holiday Island. Visitors can walk directly over running water without even realizing it. It’s just one of Eureka’s hidden layers.

10. The stories behind shops

Every shopkeeper has a story about why they came to Eureka and their shop’s raison d'être. The buildings have their own. That shop you are in may have been a newspaper office, the bank the robbers tried to rob, a doctor’s office, or even the mortuary. The storefront tells the story of what you can find there now. History tells you what happened there before. It’s a great way to strike up a friendly conversation and go home with a Eureka story.

Eureka Concierge self-guided tours help you find the history, art, lore, and tucked-away details you might otherwise miss. Download a tour to your phone and explore at your own pace.

Choose your adventure. Find your Eureka!