Following the Civil War large numbers of people came to the Ozarks in search of "healing springs" to obtain physical and mental renewal and to escape the yellow-fever epidemics and cholera that scoured the Mississippi River valleys and inner cities. Nowhere was this infusion of people and capital more obvious than at nearby Eureka Springs where within a year of its promotion as health resort a bustling city of several thousand people had arose on the steep hillsides and bluffs overlooking the springs. With so much money at stake other developers were soon trying to develop similar spring-based resorts from which to profit. All the developers needed was a spring known to have curative properties -- in Boone County, Elixir Springs bore the right credentials.

John H. Tabor claims that he and Smyth Tabor of nearby Marion County were possibly the first men to drink from Elixir Springs -- the year was 1837:

"I well remember of being very thirsty for water and we come to a spring in a hollow that leads into West Sugar Loaf Creek where we dismounted and drank and rested. Then we noticed a stream of water trickling down a steep hillside which we followed to its source where it issued from under a shelving rock in a shallow gulch on the side of the hill. Both this and the spring in the hollow was cool and pleasant to the taste".

The Tabors found nothing remarkable in their discovery at the time and without their promotion the springs in the rugged highlands were soon forgotten.

Some forty plus years later a farmer, searching for strays from his herd, came upon the spring. The farmer drank from the spring and was so impressed by the water's "wonderful softness and sweetness" he returned nearly every day for a fresh supply. To his amazement he soon found himself completely cured of a stomach ailment that had plagued him for years. He made his discovery known to a few prominent citizens in Harrison some twenty miles to the south who took an interest in the farmer's discovery. Having witnessed the riches brought to nearby Eureka Springs these men including a judge, merchant, doctor, and a miller were eager to build a health resort of their own.

Upon inspecting the springs and testing the water to assure its purity these businessmen sold their holdings elsewhere and staked their all on this venture. A town was laid out consisting of 129 blocks and 1,000 lots -- an improbable undertaking given the geographical restrictions of the narrow valley being bordered by steep hillsides and bluffs. Homes and business houses were tightly clustered along Elixir Hollow where a small stream ran noisily down through the valley. Enoch Jones who was the postmaster and real estate agent "made the deals", William Keener, the attorney and notary wrote up the land contracts, E.J. Rhodes who ran the local mill cut and planed the lumber for the homes, and D. Y. McWhirter, who ran a General Merchandise Store sold the goods needed to furnish the homes.

The dwellings were perched precariously on the sides of the hills and timbers were laid across the stream to allow people to cross from one side of the valley to the other without wading. Three large three-storied hotels were erected on three separate hills, each hotel more often referred to by its owner than by its marquee; the Singletary (Elixir) Hotel, the Stillwell (Arkansas) Hotel and the Ladd Hotel. The Elixir and Arkansas hotels towered over the main street which ran along the stream, while the Ladd Hotel was located further upstream in Ladd Hollow near a large spring called the Ladd Spring. Each of these hotels was so built into the hillside that the ground could be reached from doors or windows that the ground could be reached from doors or windows of each story; patterned no doubt, after the Basin Hotel in Eureka Springs.

Over a dozen springs and perennial seeps emerge from crevices and "soft spots" in the underlying Cotter Dolomite in Elixir Hollow. The largest springs lie near the town center and close to a geological fault that extends across the ravine. The two principal springs, lie within a few feet of one another, one on each side of the ravine, but have totally different recharge basins, emerge at different elevations, and have distinct chemical signatures with the spring on the west side being the "stronger" spring. Another spring on the west side but further upstream is known as Sulfur Springs and gives off a sulfurous odor and taste. Other small springs and seeps which once served the needs of community can be found scattered about the floor of the valley. Ms. Jones who once lived there as a child recalls that the "springs named Elixir, Cliff, Speer, Materia Medicia, Keener and Sulphur (Sulfur) flowed from the northern mountain and Tonic, Rhodes, Central, Mountain Fountain and Blowing Springs flowed from the southern mountain". An extensive advertising campaign was put into place to promote the springs and a newspaper editor from Harrison was persuaded to move his office to Elixir Springs where the Elixir Bugle, a two-page six-column sheet, was used to extol the powerful healing wonders of Elixir Springs waters. The water at Elixir Springs was esteemed not for its mineral content per se but for its purity as it was found to contain “less solid matter in solution than any of the springs of the north part of the state”. To assure this purity the main springs near the city center were located in "parks and protected by large reservations all of which were left covered with a dense growth of native timber and "guarded with the jealous eyes of the citizens". Although all the springs were reputed to have healing properties the Elixir, Materia Medica, Mountain and Keener springs were the most reputably acclaimed.

Initially the promotions and shameless testimonials offered by the developers, their friends and kin, were successful. Vast quantities of the spring water was used for bathing and drinking and was seemingly successful in combating just about every disease known to man– dropsy, paralysis, blindness, heart disease, epilepsy, and cancer had all been cured -- but the water was particularly effective in treating rheumatism and the various blood diseases. At the height of its popularity as a watering place in the summer of 1882 it has been claimed that over 1,000 people were living in Elixir Hollow to be near he health giving waters.

The owners and promoters of the town were happy at their success and when lead and zinc were discovered nearby the hotels at Elixir Springs were there to offer lodging to miners, prospectors and well-dressed venture capitalists looking to work a mine. Stores, hotels, shops and residences were sprouting up as fast as the nearby sawmills could deliver the lumber. Within one year of the town being platted there were 100 buildings of one kind or another and rough cut shelters and tents dotted the hills and hollows for the entire length of the valley. A post office, church and a school, the Elixir Institute, which opened in 1882 served to bolster Elixir Springs reputation as the heart of the community and the town's future looked promising.

Unfortunately, in October 1883, a heavy rain of five or six hours caused a great flood that came down between the steep mountains around the town. As the center of the town lied within the most constricted part of the valley it bore the brunt of the water's force. The flood completely washed out Central Avenue damaging the water mill, the lumber yard and many other buildings lining the street. The newspaper office was floated partly off its foundation -- only the heavy metal press kept the wooden building from washing away. Several people had to abandon their homes and at least one young child was lost to the flood waters. Although the damage to the town was comparatively light it made obvious to all that placing a town within the tight confines of Elixir Hollow carried much risk with regard to possible flooding.

Another glaring impingement to the growth of Elixir Springs was the lack of adequate transportation. The long, rough ride by hack or wagon from the railroads at Eureka and Chadwick was a deterrent to the more "well-to-do" clients and the founders of Elixir Springs tried vainly to procure the building of a railroad through the valley. At different times surveying parties came through and marked out right-of-way and hopes ran high, but no railroad company would ever bring its lines into this wilderness. When it became evident in 1885 that the railroad would not be coming residents of Elixir Springs began to move away en masse -- even their houses were torn down and moved away. The school was soon abandoned and the hotels quickly fell into disrepair. In 1889 E. J. Rhodes’ saw mill was blown to pieces when the boiler exploded, killing the tender Martin A. Renner and seriously injuring his wife and children. (Arkansas Democrat, 1889) When state geologist John Banner visited Elixir Springs in 1892 he noted "an air of desertion". All that remained of the city was "a post office, a store, a livery stable, a number of vacant houses and three or four occupied dwellings."

In 1897 the post office at the deserted town finally closed and soon thereafter the last family moved out of the valley. In 1906 there was talk of putting in a small grocery store and post office at the old townsite of Elixir Springs for the convenience of a great number of miners who were looking to operate Elixir Springs Mining Company. But like this zinc and lead venture such talk went nowhere – by the following year “there was not a soul living in the neighborhood of the springs”. (Daily Arkansas Gazette, 1908) By 1920 when the county put many of the lots at Elixir Springs up for auction due to delinquent taxes few of the owners could be found. Today there is not even one building in the old town and wild flowers, bushes and trees once more grow where homes and gardens had once been.

"I was brought to the Springs in a helpless condition with heart disease. My treatment was Elixir water. In three months I could walk and my health was restored".

Rachel Willis, Oregon, Ark.