Elm Springs announces heritage park

Elm Springs has partnered history with conservation in the formation of the Steele-Stevens Heritage Park.

There was a spring, surrounded by elm trees, before there was Elm Springs. Settlers founded Elm Springs in 1832 because of that spring, said Anita Burney, executive director of the Historical Society of Elm Springs.

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Its grist mill brought the city fame, Burney said. Elm Springs served as part of a stagecoach line and later a railroad depot and training camp for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War, she said. Troops marched to the Battle of Pea Ridge from there. Founders once considered the town as the site for the University of Arkansas, Burney said.

The spring still flows just off Water Avenue downtown. The land around the water has been set aside in a conservation easement for the park. The easement prohibits buildings on the property, which remains in private ownership.

The city plans historic re-enactments for the living history park, Burney said.

It also has planned trails for the property, said Mayor Harold Douthit. He hopes the land and downtown Elm Springs can build momentum through a connection to history as development reaches toward the city.

"We're in the crosshairs of development," Douthit said.

Kyya Chocolate is made in Elm Springs, the mayor said. WSE Transportation was founded by Elm Springs businessman Willis Shaw and still operates out of the area. The town has a photo shop and a beauty shop and a shuttered gas station.

The U.S. 412 bypass will run between Cave Springs and Elm Springs when built, and then wrap around the west of Elm Springs tying it to Siloam Springs, according to Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department plans. The state also plans to widen Arkansas 112, which runs through the center of town.

"We are in the next potential growth area," Douthit said.

The city's historical society launched in January 2014, Burney said. A heritage center will open in April in a 100-year-old bank building downtown. The center will have exhibits that focus on American history, Burney said. She hopes to build a temporary stage for the heritage park and host history events. The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission awarded the historical society a $1,050 grant for a marker at the park denoting its time as a training camp.

An existing marker in the city notes the tents of the 16th Arkansas Infantry covered an area near the head of Brush Creek during the winter of 1861 to 1862, headquartered in Dr. M.D. Steele's log house.

Steele was Glenda Sue Stevens' great-grandfather, and the land surrounding the spring has been in her family for years. She and her husband, Glenn, own the property.

Her great-grandfather was a Baptist minister and doctor who was on his way West when he stopped in the area to treat typhoid patients and stayed, Stevens said. His wife died of tuberculosis, and Steele married the widow of a man named Deaver, the town's miller. Wanted by Union troops, Steele lived in a Fayetteville fort during the Civil War and his wife brought him food once a week by ox cart, she said.

Union soldiers destroyed the gristmill in Elm Springs, Burney said.

Many landowners fence people away from water and restrict access. That isn't what Stevens, a retired postmaster for the town, wants.

"I'm just not going to let that happen to my spring," she said.

She wants future generations to love the spring like she does. The conservation easement means they can, Stevens said.

The 1-acre property is the smallest conservation easement to date prepared by the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust, said Terri Lane, executive director. It is also the first project under the trust's LandWise initiative, which started in August. The initiative will work with elected officials, planners, industries and landowners to protect high priority landscapes through green space. LandWise projects are partially funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. CEI Engineering and Realty Title donated services for the Elm Springs project.

The spring is the headwaters of Brush Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River. Setting it aside will help retain the character of the town as development moves toward Elm Springs, Lane said. The cooperation of landowners, the city and the vision for public use of the property made for a win-win effort, she said.

A city-owned piece of land will host parking for the park.

The land defines a sense of place for Stevens. She lived in the corner grocery store as a child, and her headstone already has its place in Elm Springs, Stevens said. She thought about donating the property to the city, but couldn't guarantee it would stay open to the public.

"You can't legislate with future people," she said.

The spring has long been a gathering place, she said.

Before the town had electricity, people stored their perishables like milk or butter in spring boxes, and made daily trips to retrieve them, Steven said. If they didn't have a well, they got their water there, too. Everyone enjoyed the cool water, she said.

"We never even realized it was property of someone," Stevens said. "We just played in it like it was ours."

NW News on 01/02/2016

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