An important scene in the third novel of the “People of the Water” Cycle takes place at this longtime attraction just west of Eureka Springs off of Highway 62.

Known briefly in the 1990s as “Eureka Springs Gardens,” the lavishly landscaped site is home to the largest spring in the area, and perhaps the only one open to the public that is bottom-fed, rather than fed by rainfall from the topsoil seeping through layers of limestone until hitting a rock layer that is not porous.

The site is also a stopover on the Trail of Tears, or “Trail Where We Wept,” as Cherokee character George describes it in the second novel, “The Crystalline Clarity.”

A small admission fee is charged at the family-owned site, where an informative film is shown and a museum displays area artifacts from history.

https://www.bluespringheritage.com/