Eureka Springs’ Charm Draws a Million Visitors : Tourism: The Arkansas town enjoys spinoff from its neighbor, Branson, Mo., the nation’s new country music haven.

The land is no good for farming and there are no industries, so the 1,900 full-time residents of this northwest Arkansas town make do with what they have.

That’s the lovely Ozark Mountain scenery, picturesque architecture and a special way of entertaining visitors.

It works. About 1.25 million tourists are expected this year.

But Eureka Springs is also enjoying spinoff from its neighbor, the new country music haven of Branson, Mo., about an hour’s drive to the north.

Last year, tourism, Eureka Springs’ only industry, brought in more than $100 million to the town and the rest of Carroll County.

“There’re no factories. You can’t grow cotton out of these rocks. Every dollar that comes in here came from somebody’s pocket,” says Bob Purvis, director of the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Information Bureau.

As many as 25% of the tourists going to Branson also visit Eureka Springs, Purvis says. Town officials are considering a branch tourism office in Branson to draw more of that traffic, he said.

This year’s sales tax collections at hotels, restaurants and gift shops in Eureka Springs were up 28% through May.

So many new bed-and-breakfast establishments were opening up in the town’s historic district that officials early this year considered a moratorium on allowing new inns. The idea later died when officials realized that stopping the inns could hurt property values.

The town’s single largest tourist draw is the Great Passion Play, an April-through-October outdoor show depicting Christ’s final days on Earth.

Even with two weeks of rain in the spring, the play’s attendance was well ahead of last year, when more than 274,000 saw performances, says Sheila Artt, advertising director.

More than 300,000 people are expected to see the play this season and some 750,000 will visit the grounds, Artt says. The grounds include several other attractions, including the seven-story Christ of the Ozarks statue and a 10-foot section of the Berlin Wall.

The scenic mountain beauty, the historic district, gingerbread Victorian architecture and crafts and antique shops have drawn visitors to the city for decades. Music shows became part of the mix 17 years ago with the opening of the Pine Mountain Jamboree.

Dave and Dee Presley Drennan, a husband-and-wife team who were among the original cast of the Presley Mountain Music Jubilee in Branson, opened the Pine Mountain Jamboree in Eureka Springs in 1974. A second show, the Ozark Mountain Hoedown, opened seven years later. Two other theaters were added along the way.

Those two theaters have new shows this season. Anita Bryant, who had a successful recording career in the early 1960s, opened her show in June. Ronnie Page, a former member of the Oak Ridge Boys and the Chuckwagon Gang, has brought his Swannee River Boys show to the Country Revue Theater.

Bryant says the Branson Chamber of Commerce tried to lure her there, but, “I like the life here and, more importantly, God has called me to Arkansas.”

Her show is a mix of country, pop, 1950s, patriotic and spiritual music.

Page performed at matinee shows in one of the Eureka Springs theaters a couple of years ago and decided he wanted to make the city his home.

“I didn’t want to go to Branson, because, in the first place, I’m small potatoes compared to Andy Williams and Ray Stevens and Mel Tillis,” Page says.

“Plus, you’ve got to live up there. And that’s not where I wanted to live. Here’s where I wanted to live,” he says.

“There’s not even a red light in this town.”

The Swannee River Boys show is a high-energy presentation featuring the quartet, a four-piece band, a female lead singer, a hillbilly comedian and individual performances by the quartet members.

Every year for the last 19 years Eureka Springs has set a tourism record, Purvis says.

“Since 1973--the first year we started tracking sales tax--our business is up more than 1,000%, right at 1,100%,” Purvis says.

The city has a tourism promotion budget of $1.7 million. Some of the money generated by a local sales tax has been used to make sure that the city’s infrastructure keeps up with the demand of increased tourism.

The city put in a trolley system several years ago to pick up riders at many of the hotels and other attractions around town. City administrator Jim Walden says the city has ordered new trolleys to increase the fleet and last year passed a bond issue to improve water and sewer systems.

And Eureka Springs is in the process of building a recycling center to manage the waste produced by all the tourists, including 750,000 who are expected to stay overnight this year.