Sulphur Springs Park

During Antebellum, travel became very popular across the United States. Springs, abundant in the Ozarks, were sought out for their healing properties. Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, became a spa and health tourism boom town. The center of the town contained four mineral springs. The boom continued through the 1940s. 

The three springs of Sulphur Springs Park contained different minerals for suggested cures. White sulfur water eased liver aliments, black sulfur for malaria, lithium soothed the nerves, and alkaline magnesium helped with intestinal issues. For many years Sulphur Springs’s popularity was just behind mecca tourism spots Eureka and Hot Springs, Arkansas.

No longer do tourists flock to the springs. The town is desolate. In the 1950s, the park was almost destroyed.  The construction of a highway took out several acres of the spring. Today, most of the old stone gazebos are intact, but the pumps are not operational.