Excerpt from The Summit of the Ozarks

The Ozarks are too high to'be called hills; yet scarcely lofty enough to be termed mountains, when compared with the stupendous peaks of the Rockies. The top of Crescent Mountain, where the Crescent Hotel stands, the very sum mit of the Ozark Range, is not quite feet above the sea level. There is little of the rugged grandeur of the stony peaks of the Rocky Mountains about the Ozarks they rather partake of the more quiet beauty of the ver dure-covered Alps which have given to Switzerland its reputation as the scenic country of the world. Yet the soft, velvety surface of these eminences of the Ozarks is frequently broken by stern cliffs which rise to the height of several hundred feet and add variety and charm to the imposing landscape, which never fails to enrapture visitors.

Eureka Springs, as the settlement itself is known, recalls strongly the quaint Alpine villages 01 Switzerland, about which so much has been written. It is a town of some permanent residents. For a large part of the year, however, its population 18 enhanced by throngs of visitors, it being estimated that persons from other parts of the country go there annually in search of health and pleasure.

Ponce de Leon sought in vain for a fountain of perpetual youth. In this Ozark Range he could have found a country of perpetual fountains. Springs, as incessant as the strides of time, gush forth from the sides of hills at almost every hundred yards and commingle in the gulches to form softly-murmuring brooks, whose clear, crystal-like waters suddenly disappear into the earth, every here and there, only to reappear a few hundred yards farther on, rushing over gravel beds in their eager haste to join some river and make their Way with it to the broad bosom of the restless ocean.

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