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Sulphur Springs is a city in Benton County,
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
, United States. The population was 481 at the 2020 census. It is part of the
Northwest Arkansas Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozarks. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Springdale, Arkansas, Springdale, Rogers, Arkansas, Rogers, ...
region.


History

Sulphur Springs got its start in 1885 as a
mineral spa Mineral spas are spa resorts developed around naturally occurring mineral springs. Like seaside resorts, they are mainly used recreationally although they also figured prominently in prescientific medicine. Origins Spas were used for mille ...
resort.


Geography

Sulphur Springs is located in northwest Benton County. The city center is about one mile south of the
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
-Arkansas state line.
Arkansas Highway 59 Arkansas Highway 59 is a north–south List of Arkansas state highways, state highway in Northwest Arkansas. The route runs from Arkansas Highway 22 in Barling, Arkansas, Barling north to the Missouri state line through Van Buren, Arkansas, V ...
runs through the city, leading north to Noel, Missouri, and south to Gravette. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , all land. Sulphur Springs is in the Springfield Plateau subregion of the
Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...
. It has porous rocks through which rain easily can pass underground to the aquifers. When water in aquifers flow down a hillside, or are pushed up to the surface, this causes a spring. The springs in Sulphur Springs are exceptionally rich in several minerals, and historically the springs were labeled to indicate the purported mineral found in each: *''Black sulphur:'' Water with hydrogen sulfide that has come into contact with a metal such as iron, which then corrodes to create ferrous sulfide *''
Chalybeate Chalybeate () waters, also known as Iron oxide, ferruginous waters, are mineral spring waters containing salts of iron. Name The word ''chalybeate'' is derived from the Latin word for steel, , which follows from the Ancient Greek, Greek word ...
:'' High in iron salts, especially ferrous bicarbonate *''
Lithium salts Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, ...
:'' A rare mineral water *''Magnesia:'' High in magnesium, often
magnesium carbonate Magnesium carbonate, (archaic name magnesia alba), is an inorganic salt that is a colourless or white solid. Several hydrated and Base (chemistry), basic forms of magnesium carbonate also exist as minerals. Forms The most common magnesium car ...
*''
Nitre Niter or nitre is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, KNO3. It is a soft, white, highly soluble mineral found primarily in arid climates or cave deposits. Potassium and other nitrates are of great importance for use in fertilizers and, ...
:'' High in potassium nitrate, also known as saltpeter *'' Potash sulphur:'' Containing potassium and sulfur *''White sulphur:'' Containing a high concentration of sulfur compounds, especially
hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is toxic, corrosive, and flammable. Trace amounts in ambient atmosphere have a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. Swedish chemist ...
gas and sulfates. "White" meant colorless.


Ozark Colony

Ozark Colony was originally a nearby community, but now is a Sulphur Springs neighborhood. In 1921, Walter R. Eaton, a retired oilman, established the colony with $25,000 capital (equivalent to about $436,200 in 2024) as an intellectual and artistic recreation-based cooperative: people would buy a plot of land and agree to work in community-held ventures with the proceeds going toward their vacation expenses in the colony. People worked in the 100-acre (40.4 ha) vineyard that was owned collectively under the name Ozark Colony Grape Club, and processed the grapes into juice and marmalade to sell. They also made hickory furniture and had a poultry club. Eaton, as president of the Ozark League Commission, also collaborated with neighboring tourist towns such as Eureka Springs to promote and market the home products and handicrafts made at the colony. The colony had more than 40 cottages, a Grecian theater with classical recitals and costumed performers, a lodge with a dance floor and disco ball, manmade lakes stocked with trout for fishing, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. Seasonally, they had artist exhibits, art classes with visiting directors from the
Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. The institute ...
, music classes, and plays. Artist, cabinet-maker, and resident Jim Sease made a
totem pole Totem poles () are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large t ...
(which were fashionable in tourist and resort areas at the time), telling the community's history, from a generalized nod to native Americans, to the four springs for which Sulphur Springs is named, then the railroad and airplanes, and a modern city with resort hotels and
John Brown University John Brown University (JBU) is a private interdenominational Christian university in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Founded in 1919, JBU enrolls 2,343 students from 33 states and 45 countries in its traditional undergraduate, graduate, online, and c ...
.Totem poles historically are part of the culture of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The Native Americans who lived closest to the Ozark Colony area were of the
Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...
. The artistic one erected at Ozark Colony reportedly was topped by a depiction of an idealized leader of the Conestoga people, which were Algonquian-speaking people who historically lived in present-day Pennsylvania and Maryland, and also depicted a
wigwam A wigwam, wikiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wikiup'' ...
, which again are found in Northeastern United States. This type of romanticized view of Native Americans and cultural appropriation of totem poles and other symbols were a popular way to signal that an area was attuned to nature and offered outdoor recreation and adventure.
Painter John Eliot Jenkins kept a studio in the colony. His paintings are now in state capitols and libraries in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia, and his ''Snow in the Ozarks'' (1925) oil on canvas painting is part of the Foundation Collection at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in
Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
.


Demographics

At the 2020
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
, 481 people lived in Sulphur Springs. There were 193 households. The median age was 34.5 years old. Income and poverty: Median income was $36.691; 17.2% experiencing poverty. Education: 47% high school or equivalent degree; 11% some college, no degree; 4.6% Associates degree; 10.4% Bachelor's degree; 3.7% Graduate or professional degree. Employment: 70.2% employees of private companies; 19.5% local, state, and federal workers; 10.2% self-employed. Average travel time to work: 24.3 minutes; 65.9% drive alone to work; 27.3% carpool to work; 6.3% work from home. Health: 28.6% without health care coverage; 21.5% have one or more disabilities. Living arrangements: 46.1% married couple household; 29% male householder with no spouse present; 17.1% female householder with no spouse present. Race and ethnicity: 390 people white alone; 68 two or more races; 55 some other race than the options given; 16 Hispanic or Latino of any race; 7 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; 5 American Indian and Alaska native alone; 4 Black alone; 2 Asian alone.


Education

It is in the Gravette School District, which operates Gravette High School.


Places of interest

*
Old Spanish Treasure Cave The Old Spanish Treasure Cave is located on Hwy 59 between Sulphur Springs, Benton County, Arkansas, Sulphur Springs and Gravette, Arkansas in the northwest corner of the state. It has been a popular tourist attraction since at least 1908. It is s ...
* Sulphur Springs Park Reserve


Notable people

* Jim Hendren (born 1963), a businessman from Sulphur Springs, represents District 2 in the
Arkansas Senate The Arkansas State Senate is the upper branch of the Arkansas General Assembly. The Senate consists of 35 members, each representing a district with about 83,000 people. Service in the state legislature is part-time, and many state senators have ...
, former member of the
Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House has 100 members elected from an equal number of constituencies across the state. Each distr ...


Notes


References


External links

{{authority control Cities in Benton County, Arkansas Cities in Arkansas Northwest Arkansas 1885 establishments in Arkansas