The headwaters of nearby Prairie Creek are referred to as “dream valley” due to its combination of fertile bottomlands, hillsides rich in timber, and many springs offering a dependable source of water. At one time a small homestead could be found by nearly every spring of ever-flowing water in this protected valley lying below Rogers. The tavern and stage stop that served the Butterfield Express drew its water from Callahan Spring. The railroad that gave birth to Rogers drew its water from Frisco Spring. The city drew its municipal water from Diamond Spring using water from nearby Railroad Spring to drive the turbine to pump the water. And, for those seeking relief of ailments and diseases they drew their water from Electric Springs.

H. B. Horsley was the first to promote Electric Springs as a watering hole for overnight visits when he moved to the area from Missouri after the Civil War and built the Electric Springs Hotel. The hotel lying in the deeply shaded cove quickly became a popular place for travelers seeking relaxation and lodging; however, it wasn’t until 1879 that anyone would claim that the springs possessed medicinal properties. That was the year when a Mr. Archer who was staying at the hotel was relieved of his long-standing neuralgia after drinking and washing with the water after a few days. Mr. Archer recommended the water to his brother who was severely crippled with rheumatism. His brother was brought to the springs in a wheelchair and in three weeks he was cured and could walk again. Word of these miraculous cures spread quickly and for the next forty years Electric Springs was the centerpiece of a thriving health resort.

In May of 1881 the Frisco railroad came to Rogers and a grand reception was held at Electric Springs Hotel. In attendance were a number of land owners and speculators looking to acquire and develop properties along the rail line. Electric Springs was already a proven asset and in September of 1881 hundreds of residential housing lots were platted within a forty-five block development with the springs as the centerpiece. A large park and a reserve was set aside to protect the springs and the streets were laid out in formal straight grid-like fashion, totally unsuited to the steep hillsides and hollows. Although only a handful of the lots were sold, several cottages were built on those that were sold and during the summer many families and guests spent several weeks at a time at Electric Springs. The list of claimed visitors includes such celebrities as Will Rodgers, Belle Starr, and Jesse James. Those who lacked a cottage and didn’t want to camp could take refuge in either the 30-guest Electric Springs Hotel or the smaller and well-attended Cottage Hotel.

























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The healing waters of the springs were reported to cure many ailments including neuralgia, rheumatism, scrofula, dropsy and dyspepsia. Considered to be a nerve stimulant and promoter of gland action and favoring both secretion and excretion, many visitors reported complete cessation of chronic indigestion and constipation with use of water. The water was also found to be beneficial for sties, boils, carbuncles, internal abscesses and edema. Testimonials of the spring’s healing properties reached miraculous proportions in 1882 when the Rogers New Era newspaper reported that a Mr. Blacks “was cured of cancer” with use of water from Electric Springs and that “he was subsequently attended to by Dr. McNees who would testify to such cure”. This story and other affidavits offered by patients suffering from dropsy and rheumatism were reported in the state’s largest newspaper, the Arkansas Gazette, and newspapers in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. In another story a man was cured of scrofula of ten years standing that had baffled all previous curative attempts made by physicians. The man was severely inflicted, had not walked for three years and could barely lift his head from a pillow but after using the water for just four months he was “out walking over the mountains hunting game.”

When Arkansas State Geologist John Banner visited Electric Springs in 1891 he found a dozen springs within a single quarter section of which Electric Springs were the most notable consisting of “three small springs, or perhaps one with three openings." The springs arose from the Boone chert formation and its accompanying limestones and were enriched with calcium. There was no free gas in the alkaline water and the water was tasteless and odorless – as it is today. Of the other springs in this vicinity mention was made of a “Mossy Spring” and “Bath Rock Spring” the latter so named from a natural cavity in the rock shaped much like a bath tub. Mossy Spring had a reputation as a blood purifier. There were also two other nearby springs which were prescribed as being slightly chalybeate. The remainder of the springs in the area were described as clear, odorless and tasteless.

Electric Springs was one of the more popular attractions for visitors to Rogers and the Ozark Mountain Assembly met on the hill overlooking the springs every July and August for Chautauqua. These assemblies offered music and lectures from among the nation’s best orators and were always well attended in addition to being a financial success. William Jennings Bryan spoke at the Assembly in 1894 and Col. L. F. Copeland, the “king of the platform” in 1892 and 1893. The three hotels at Electric Springs – the two at the springs and the one on the hill by the Chatauqua overlooking the springs – were often filled to capacity during the summer and promoters discussed building a street railway to the springs from Rogers rail station.

In 1895 Dr. W. L. Leister, the prestigious and illustrative eclectic physician, moved to Electric Springs and opened up the Electric Springs Sanitarium. Born in 1847 in Oakland City, Indiana, Dr. Leister was already a well-known and respected physician before moving to Arkansas. A graduate of the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati and Pulte Medical College, Dr. Leister moved to Arkansas in 1891 with his wife Susan in hopes that the change would improve the failing health of a son and daughter, Loyde and Gail. He was admitted into the Arkansas Eclectic Association the following summer and took up residence in Heber Springs while offering to travel to any part of the state for consultation or to perform surgery. At Heber Springs he acquainted himself with the local flora and fauna, practiced the healing arts, and edited and published the Arkansas Eclectic Medical Journal. Lister’s stay at Heber Springs was brief and in 1893 he and his family would move to Searcy – a health resort promoting White Sulphur Springs. Here again he failed to find an environment fully suited to the needs of his family and career; it was then that he packed his wagons for Electric Springs. With Leister’s guidance and promotion Electric Springs became a respected institute of eclectic healing. Leister prescribed the spring waters together with local botanical herbs to affect many cures and believed the sanitarium’s advantages -- scenic environment, moderate climate, and pure water – to be a critical component to his success. Unlike many of the medical practices in use at the time – bloodletting, purges and mercury-based remedies -- eclectic medicine drawing heavily upon the use of botanical remedies offered a far more pleasing and palatable approach of treatment. When it was found that many of these botanical cures offered patients more relief with less risk than could be attained through medical care; many physicians appealed to their state government to pass “Black Laws” restricting the practice of “unconventional medicine”. Standing strong against “pill-pushing medical doctors” Leister never relinquished his embrace of eclectic medicine as a means to heal the ill and was forever proud of his sanitarium. Using such plants as curly-top gumweed, poke weed, mayapple, and whistling thorn Dr. Leister developed unique formularies that proved effective in treating a number of diseases.





















During Dr. Leister’s tenure the springs underwent a number of improvements. The old wooden boardwalk, railing and pipes were removed and the hill side cut back to better expose the springs. The embankment was then reinforced with a rock wall graced by three separate portals yielding water from the three different springheads. At the front of each portal there was a rock basin from which the waters could be dipped. Any overflow from the basin cascaded down to a stone patio where it was collected in a drain and carried away. A new bridge was built over Prairie Creek and a grandstand pavilion constructed for dances, skits and speeches. Special excursions now brought droves of tourists to the healing springs of Arkansas each summer and the grounds were groomed with new benches, paving and road improvements to meet the growing demand.

















Dr. Leister promoted Electric Springs widely as a health resort in his professional correspondence. While at Electric Springs the Arkansas Eclectic Medical Journal begun in Heber Springs metamorphosed into the Southwestern Eclectic Medical Journal to better represent Texan interests and for a few short months Dr. Leister and his sons also published a local newspaper, the Roger Enterprise. In 1899 Dr. Leister’s wife of 30 years died and the loss was felt deeply. Dr. Leister rented a home in nearby Esculpia where he raised his two young daughters while filling the void arising from wife’s death by working longer hours at his practice in Eclectic Springs and pursuing various professional interests. In 1901 Dr. Leister remarried and announced he was moving to his wife’s home state of Nebraska to secure a position with the Lincoln Medical College. Although he relocated to Nebraska Dr. Leister continued to take referrals at the Electric Springs Sanitarium for several more years.

In 1903 Dr. Leister placed an ad in The Medical World announcing that his practice at Electric Springs was for sale as he had been elected to chair the department of Ophthamlology and Otology in the American Medical College in St. Louis. Dr. Leister would move to St. Louis, chair the department, and become associate editor to The American Medical Journal before retiring to his boyhood home in Indiana. When in 1917 it became apparent that his health was rapidly failing Dr. Leister placed a personal in the Eclectic Medical Journal offering to “give away” his practice to a “well qualified young married physician”. He would die a few days thereafter on Sunday, March 6 after which his wife moved back to Arkansas to live closer to her sister Addie Bartlett overseer of Cave Springs and wife of A. A. Bartlett, an accomplished musician and entertainer whose door was always open.

The loss of the Leister and sanitarium undermined Electric Springs credibility as a health resort of renown; however, lodging was still available H. B. Horsley’s Electric Springs Hotel -- still the largest and most popular – the Cottage Hotel run by Ella Adams, the “Spring Hotel” and a handful of boarding houses and cottages. In a letter written in 1909 Ms. Will Rogers wife of the famous actor and performer invited her sister to come join her at Electric Springs where “there is a good hotel and a good man” managing it through the summer. It was also rumored that among the summer homes at Electric Springs was one owned by the family of Colonel Greenwood Leflore, a mixed blood Choctaw Indian who as the last great chieftain of his people signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 that finalized the removal of Choctaw from their ancestral lands.

















In 1906 Mrs. M. M. Sloan, formerly of Chicago, secured a five year lease from the owners of the spring to bottle surplus water and ship it to all parts of the country so that people less fortunate and unable to travel could still have the “purest water mother earth affords”. Plans were made to build a large storage tank and bottling plant from which to bottle thousands of gallons of water a day but the business never materialized. By 1913 nearly all of Electric Springs – the springs, the hotel, and an adjoining 40 acres with a half dozen cottages had come under the ownership of a local businessman, banker and railroad man W. R. Felker who sold the properties to W. E. Talley and Rev. J. F. Little. At the time Mr. Talley was president -- and Rev. Little director -- of the Bank of Rogers, a bank formerly owned by Mr. Felker. When the bank failed the following year all three -- Felker, Talley and Little -- were indicted by a grand jury: Talley was sentenced to two years in prison but was later pardoned after a protracted legal battle in which all other charges related to the bank’s failure were dropped.

Preoccupied by judicial procedures and saddled with legal expenses development of Electric Springs came to a stand still until 1917 when the Old Folks’ Home, owned by S. G. Heverly and managed by Ms. J. B. West, was sold to Dr. W. D. Baker who made plans to turn the property into a summer resort. Ever the consummate proponent of the elderly and the infirmed Mrs. West then leased out the largely vacant Electric Springs Hotel to house the occupants of the Old Folk’s Home. The elderly and invalids basking in the reserve surrounding the park failed to entice other visitors to stop at the watering hole many who now just drove right on by on their way to Rogers.

















By the Great Depression it was evident that Electric Springs as a health resort was a bust. Most of the cabins and cottages lay in total disrepair, some unfit for occupancy and the forest was reclaiming the grounds. Outside of the two hotels all the businesses and attractions were found closer to the railroad station up the hill in Rogers as were several nicer hotels and eating establishments. As fate would have it one of the last community gatherings at the springs was a road work party. When a severe storm washed out the road from Rogers to Electric Springs the community gathered at the hotel with their horses, wagons and equipment. For three days while the men worked, hauling rocks and filling in the washed out road, the women prepared meals at the hotel.

Much of the land adjoining the springs was brought under the ownership of O.L. Gregory during the 1920s. Gregory was prosperous farmer and owner of one of the largest apple brandy and vinegar plants in the world – the capacity of “tank farm” in Rogers was over 1,500,000 gallons. Gregory recalled visiting Electric Springs in his youth and had the emotional longing and resources to make extensive improvements to Electric Springs Hotel but it would be both an expensive and futile undertaking as the resort was beyond recovery, doomed by the automobile and modern day medicine.

While Rogers was known to possess many health-giving springs it was also known for its spring water-borne diseases, most specifically typhoid fever – a grueling month long course of unrelenting fever, chills, diarrhea, aches, and delirium for those who survive and death for nearly one in five people before the advent of antibiotics. The list of individuals dying from typhoid fever in Rogers is revealing: merchants, doctors and farmers, black, white, young and old, they all died. In 1915 in the midst of one of the more serious epidemics in which nine died and over a hundred people became ill it was evident that many of the springs in Rogers were contaminated and the city elected to build a water and sewerage plant. By chlorinating the municipal water supply at Diamond Spring and removing pit holes, outhouses and open sewage from the city most water borne diseases were soon eliminated. However any town can have a “Typhoid Mary” – someone who recovers from the infection but continues to harbor and shed contagious bacteria -- and Rogers may have had more than one as typhoid fever persisted in Rogers long after it had been eradicated elsewhere in the state. Rogers was no longer a place known for its health-giving waters.

By the late 1920s the cottages still standing at Electric Springs were used solely by transits and migratory workers and the large unpainted ramshackled hotel was occupied chiefly by squatters. Gregory had given up on his dreams to recreate the resort oasis of his youth and donated much of the land near the springs to the Work Progress Administration during the depression. They in turn dammed Prairie Creek to create Lake Atalanta naming it in honor of Gregory’s wife. During World War II a salvage company from Oklahoma bought the old hotel for scrap. Materials saved during the salvage included a staircase of black oak and several full cut 2 x 6's that were a “full 2 inches thick, a full 6 inches wide and maybe 20 feet long, straight as a ribbon and not a knot in them”. These joists of virgin pine likely came from Van Winkle or War Eagle Mills as they dominated the regional market from the 1870s until the depression of 1893.

Today the remains of an old stone retaining wall, about twenty feet long and three feet high is all that is left of this popular drinking place. The water drips into one of the three small catchment basins but never the touching the lips of man.