Eureka Springs

The springs drew people from the 1870s on claims of healing water, and a town went up fast on ground too steep to plan properly - the streets wind round the hillside following contours, there is not a single traffic light, and buildings have entrances on several floors depending which street you approach from. The whole downtown is on the National Register. The Crescent Hotel of 1886 above the town later housed a fraudulent cancer hospital run by a man with no medical qualifications in the 1930s, and now trades heavily on ghost tours. Thorncrown Chapel, Fay Jones's 1980 glass and timber chapel in the woods nearby, is the architectural reason to come.

What to look for

• Streets following contours - no grid, no traffic lights, no level ground.
• A whole downtown on the register - Victorian, built fast in the 1880s.
• The Crescent Hotel - and the fraudulent hospital in its history.
• Thorncrown Chapel - Fay Jones, 1980, glass and timber in the woods.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Before you go

Parking is very difficult and streets are narrow and steep. The healing-water claims were never substantiated. Ghost tourism dominates a lot of the marketing. Winter closes much of the town.

Nearby

Thorncrown Chapel is a few minutes west; Beaver Lake is north.

Key facts