The Daily Times-Echo in the twenty-fifth anniversary issue of April 24,
1905, says:
“In no other city on the continent can there be found a street railway
that leads such a winding course around and up and down the
mountain-sides as does the Citizens Electric Railway of Eureka Springs.
As you alight at the depot of the St. Louis and North Arkansas Railway
you find a well-equipped street car there in waiting, and presently you
are swung up and around the mountain side along what appears to be a
ledge or precipice, and to the timid, it seems that in each instance
there is danger of the car being hurled to the valley below. But really
such a possibility is very remote, for during all the years the line has
been in operation there has never been a serious accident. To make
safety doubly sure, the far-seeing management has had guard rails laid
all along this section of the line. From the depot up the mountain side
to the intersection with the main line at the Crescent Spring, a little
more than half a mile, the ascent amounts to a fraction over 101 feet,
or a little more than 200 feet to the mile. The main line, which circles
around West Mountain, traversing the most popular thorofare of the city
and passing most all the famous springs and principal institutions, is
not without its grades and wondrous curves.... At the Auditorium (now
the Harmon Playgrounds), the track commences a most charming and
tortuous ascent, and a feat of engineering that has challenged the
admiration of many scientific men who have visited the resort. A roadbed
had to be graded around the mountain side at angles that would seem
ridiculous were it anywhere else than in this unusual mountain range.
One car will be only a few yards from and above the other, and
apparently going in the same direction when actually, they are headed
toward opposite ends of the line. These ends, however, are only 300
yards apart, one end resting in the valley while the other is at the
mountain’s peak. From the Crescent Hotel to the Auditorium there is a
descent of 140 feet.
“The equipment and service on this street railway is better than can be
found in many cities of far greater population than Eureka Springs, and
the entire system is a source of gratification and pride to our people.
Visitors make the valley echo with their merry shouts as they are
carried around its course in the beautifully decorated and lighted
trolley party cars, and the bands and orchestras of the city are
frequent participants in these festivities.”
[Illustration: Trolley car.]
XIX
CARRY A. NATION
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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