Beauty and History at Blue Spring Heritage Center

Blue Spring Heritage Center

Blue Spring Heritage Center is a hidden gem of breathtaking natural beauty and rich history, located just 15 minutes from the Beaver Lake cabins and suites of Sugar Ridge Resort. Whether you’re a history buff, nature lover, or simply seeking a peaceful retreat, this 33-acre botanical garden and historic site offers an unforgettable experience.

Guests of Sugar Ridge Resort will  discover that there’s plenty to do and to see right here on Beaver Lake. The location of the resort provides sweeping views of the lake, with hiking, biking, boating, and fishing within very easy reach. Consequently, a good number of our guests never feel the need to wander too far off.

That being said, the wonders of Beaver Lake are but one of the area’s many must-see attractions. In fact, we’re surrounded by a variety of destinations that are well worth your time. With spring right around the corner, one of the first that comes to mind is Blue Spring Heritage Center.

Visiting Blue Spring Heritage Center

The highlight of the center is Blue Spring itself, one of Arkansas’ largest natural springs. The spring’s strikingly blue waters flow at an incredible rate of 38 million gallons per day. The water forms a tranquil lagoon before spilling over into the White River, as it has for thousands of years. A viewing deck makes taking in the serene beauty of the spring’s crystal-clear waters a relaxing experience. You can even feed the trout in the lagoon – a very popular pastime!

Blue Spring Heritage Center is also home to lush gardens showcasing native plants, vibrant flowers, and towering trees. The Woodland Garden offers a shaded path filled with wildflowers, while the Medicine Wheel Garden highlights plants historically used by indigenous people for medicinal and spiritual purposes.

Visitors can enjoy winding walking trails that meander past rock formations, cascading water features, and peaceful ponds. Benches are thoughtfully placed throughout the gardens, providing perfect spots to sit and take in the sights and sounds of nature.

The combination of water, flora, and wooded areas makes Blue Spring Heritage Center a haven for wildlife. Birdwatchers will delight in spotting songbirds, herons, and hawks. Nature photographers will find endless inspiration in the reflections of the blue waters, blooming flowers, and ancient rock formations.

Beautiful Scenery But Also A Deep History

Cliffs at Blue Spring Heritage Center

Thinking Blue Spring is a beautiful place is not a new phenomenon. The Cherokee and other indigenous groups recognized Blue Spring as a sacred site long before European settlers arrived. In fact, the center’s Blue Spring Shelter, an archaeological site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, shows evidence of human habitation going back some 10,000 years!

Not all of the area’s history is happy, unfortunately. Blue Spring also served as a stopping point during the tragic Trail of Tears era. This is when Cherokee people were forced from their homelands to present-day Oklahoma between 1830 and 1850. Consequently, Blue Spring is recognized as part of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

Interpretive signs throughout the center explain the historical, natural, and cultural significance of the area.

Planning Your Visit

Blue Spring Heritage Center is open daily, 9am to 6pm, from March 15th through November 29. Blue Spring Heritage Center is located at 1537 Co Rd 210, Eureka Springs, AR. This is just north of both our Beaver Lake resort and Eureka Springs; an easy and scenic 15 minute drive.

The center is a fantastic destination during the springtime bloom, as a summer retreat, or for a fall foliage adventure. Whether you’re looking for a peaceful stroll, a history lesson, or simply a quiet place to recharge, this natural wonder offers it all.

Learn more at bluespringheritage.com. You can also find the Center on Facebook.

Take to the Skies at Ozark Mountain Ziplines

Ozark Mountain Ziplines

Looking for a little high-flying adventure during your Beaver Lake getaway? Ozark Mountain Ziplines offers just that and more and is only 15 minutes away from Sugar Ridge Resort!

There’s no end to the ways you can enjoy yourself in the Beaver Lake area. Hiking, biking, caves, theater, shopping, dining, wineries, music, and more. Ziplining is one outdoor option that is guaranteed to get your blood flowing!

Those who’ve had the experience already know but, if never ridden a zipline, you’re in for quite a treat. The activity combines outdoor adventure with the fun of an amusement ride and can make you feel as if you’re flying like a bird.

Ozark Mountain Ziplines

Ozark Mountain Ziplines  (OMZ) is located on 66 forested acres at 208 West Van Buren, in Eureka Springs, AR. As we mention above, this is just a little over 10 minutes from the Beaver Lake cabins and suites at Sugar Ridge Resort.

Activities include a zipline course, on-site e-bike trails and rentals, and gem panning.

OMZ’s zipline course consists of 10 separate cables and a swinging bridge, stretching over 1.5 miles between the treetops. No man-made towers here! Helmeted zipliners safely glide from point to point along the cables, enjoying forested views from as high as 250′ off the ground. Choose from the full, two-hour canopy tour or the express, 40 minute tour.

e-mountain biking

Visitors can also rent e-mountain bikes to explore the center’s two-mile loop trail. While you still need to pedal, the e-bikes make getting over the rugged and bumpy hills that much easier. The trail includes streams, bridges, unique rock formations, and zipliners soaring overhead. There’s even a picnic area to stop, eat, and take in the scenery.

You can also pan for gems at OMZ’s Ozark Mountain Mining Company. Panners pay for a bag of “mining rough” to put through an authentic mining sluice. This washes the sand and dirt away to reveal what is hidden within. What treasures will you find? A fun-filled, all-ages activity and lesson in both history and geology.

Spend a few hours zipping from tree to tree, riding the trails, and panning for gems, then it’s just a short, scenic drive back to your comfy, lakeside cabin or suite at Sugar Ridge Resort. The makings of a perfect day!

Visit www.ziplineeurekasprings.com for hours, reservations, and more information. You can also find OMZ on Facebook.

Explore Roaring River State Park

Roaring River Spring
“Roaring River Spring” by Jeff Weese is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Those looking for a truly unique outdoor attraction will enjoy a visit to Missouri’s Roaring River State Park. Best of all, this popular destination is less than a half hour’s drive from the Beaver Lake cabins and suites of Sugar Ridge Resort!

You could easily spend a busy week in the Eureka Springs area and still not experience all there is to see and do here. Between all the local festivals, shopping, entertainment, history, and natural attractions, there’s never a need to stray too far afield.

Eureka Springs isn’t the only interesting place in the area, however. The entire region is loaded with fun things to do and see! Roaring River State Park is a great example of what we’re talking about.

The park is in a deep, narrow, river valley, carved out over the centuries by the Roaring River. In fact, one of the park’s most fascinating features is that it’s home to the source of the Roaring River!

Not only is Roaring River one of Missouri’s most popular state parks, it’s only a scenic, 25 minute drive away!

Roaring River State Park

This fantastic State Park can be found at 12716 Farm Road 2239 in Cassville, Missouri, only ten minutes or so past the Missouri/Arkansas border.

Roaring River Spring, located beneath a high limestone cliff, produces 20+ million gallons of water a day, on average. The water flows out into a deep blue pool that, while only 10 feet across, has been explored to a depth of 223 feet!

Another, smaller spring, located at the top of the cliff, cascades down into the main pool below. The water flows out of the deep pool, through a fish hatchery, then out to form the Roaring River. Fascinating!

Roaring River State Park Dam and Spillway
“Roaring River State Park Dam and Spillway” by Keith Snyder is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

As you can imagine, with the hatchery right there, fishing at the park is excellent. The waters offer year ’round, rainbow trout fishing but anyone 16 years of age or older will need a Missouri fishing permit to wet a line. Many prefer to simply watch and feed the many trout found swimming in the deep blue of the spring pool.

Roaring River State Park also offers 7 hiking trails. Trails that explore the 4,294 acre park, including hardwood forests, small streams, and strange geological formations.

Other park features include a historic CCC and WPA structures, the Ozark Chinquapin Nature Center, a park store, restaurant, picnic tables, and more.

Visit the park website for more information.

Spend the day exploring the park, then it’s a just a a short and scenic drive back to your Beaver Lake cabin or suite at Sugar Ridge Resort. A great way to spend a vacation day!

Attend Hillberry Music Festival 2023!

Hillberry Music Festival audience members

Hillberry Music Festival 2023 is just weeks away. The popular, multi-day festival features over 30 groups playing Americana, Bluegrass, and Funk on two stages for five nights. October 4th through the 8th, 2023.

If you like good music, good food,  and a good time, you’ll love the Ozarks, you’ll love Hillberry Music Festival. The event, which sprang to life spontaneously in 2015, celebrates the arrival of the harvest moon. Thus it’s less well known full name: Hillberry the Harvest Moon Festival.

The festival seems to get a little bigger each year and is considered one of the Midwest’s top Bluegrass Festivals. The event draws thousands of people each year and who can blame them? More than 30 bands for 5 nights plus food, drink, craft vendors, workshops, and more.

The event takes place on The Farm, a 160-acre campground and events center north of Eureka Springs. The location is a stunning camping area featuring 360-degree panoramic views of the Ozarks. Mark Twain National Forest, Table Rock Lake, the White River, and Beaver Lake are all nearby.

In fact, The Farm is less than a 15 minute scenic drive from Sugar Ridge Resort.

While many who attend the festival simply camp on site, others prefer to retire to a separate location. Somewhere like the Beaver Lake cabins and suites at Sugar Ridge Resort!

Spend as much time as you like soaking up the fun of the festival, then return to the peace and quiet of your accommodations on Beaver Lake. Perfect!

2023 Hillberry Music Festival Lineup

This year’s Harvest Moon Festival runs from October 4th through October 8th, 2023. The Farm is located at 1 Blue Heron Lane in Eureka Springs, AR

Hillberry Music Festival 2023

Wednesday, October 4 –
5:40pm – 7:10pm: Front Porch (Shrine Stage)
7:55pm – 9:25pm: Eureka Strings (Shrine Stage)
10:10pm – 11:40pm: Friends of the Phamily (Shrine Stage)

Thursday, October 5 –
11:30am – 12:30pm: Danny Spain Gang (Shrine Stage)
1pm – 2pm: Magnolia Brown (Shrine Stage)
2:30pm – 3:30pm: Red Oak Ruse (Shrine Stage)
3:40pm – 5pm: Country Jesus (Main Stage)
5:40pm – 7:10pm: Rumpke Mountain Boys (Main Stage)
7:55pm – 9:25pm: Kellergrass with the Hillbenders (Main Stage)
10:10pm – 11:40pm: Kitchen Dwellers (Main Stage)
12:55am – 1:55am: Arkansauce (Main Stage)

Friday, October 6 –
1pm – 2:30pm: Skye Pollard & Fanmily Holler (Shrine Stage)
3pm – 4:30pm: Chucky Waggs & the Company of Raggs (Main Stage)
5:10pm – 6:40pm: Sierra Hull (Main Stage)
7:20pm – 8:50pm: The Wood Brothers (Main Stage)
9:30pm – 11pm: Leftover Salmon (Main Stage)
11:40pm – 1:10am: moe. (Main Stage)
1:30am – 3am: Fireside Collective (Shrine Stage)

Hillberry Music Festival Performer

Saturday, October 7 –
9am – 10:30am: Hillberry All-Stars / Chompdown! (Activities Tent)
12:45pm – 2:15pm: The Vine Brothers (Shrine Stage)
2:30pm – 4pm: Catfish Seminar (Main Stage)
4:30pm – 6pm: Opal Agafia (Main Stage)
6:45pm – 8:15pm: Neal Francis (Main Stage)
9pm – 12am: Railroad Earth (Main Stage)
12:40am – 2:10am: Here Come the Mummies (Main Stage)
2:10am – 3:40am: Sicard Hollow (Shrine Stage)

Sunday, October 8 –
10:15am – 12:30pm: John Henry Band Competition
12:30pm – 2pm: The Gary Lawrence Show (Shrine Stage)
2:30pm – 4pm: Rochelle Bradshaw (Main Stage)
4:40pm – 6:10pm: Sad Daddy (Main Stage)
6:50pm – 8:20pm: Elephant Revival (Main Stage)
9pm – 12am: Railroad Earth (Main Stage)
12:40am – 2:10am: The Sensational Barnes Brothers (Main Stage)
2:15am – 3:30am: Blurrred Name (Shrine Stage)

Festival tickets are limited and sell out every year. Get yours while you still can on the Hillberry Music Festival website. You can also find this event on Facebook

Visit Pea Ridge National Military Park

Pea Ridge National Military Park

The Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge took place in early March of 1862 and involved nearly 26,000 Union, Confederate, and even Cherokee soldiers. Pea Ridge National Military Park preserves this important Civil War battlefield, located just 20 minutes west of our Beaver Lake cabins and suites.

Civil War history buffs will find a lot to explore in Arkansas.  There’s the Lakeport Plantation in Lake Village, Chidester’s Poison Springs Battleground, Headquarters House in Fayetteville, and many others. Of all the major Civil War sites in the state, Pea Ridge is the closest to Beaver Lake, and notable as one of the most intact Civil War battlefields around.

The Battle of Pea Ridge saw the two armies wrestling for control of Missouri, a crucial border state. The Confederates, led by Major General Earl Van Dorn, brought 16,000 soldiers to the fight, including almost 800 Cherokee. They faced off against 10,250 Union soldiers, led by Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis , who were in control of the state at the time.

The conflict, a bloody battle by all accounts, took place over two days and on two separate battlefields. Though they were outnumbered, the Union was victorious, holding their position and driving the Confederates from the battlefield.

Pea Ridge National Military Park

scenic overlook

Pea Ridge Military Park is located at 15930 East, US-62, in Garfield, AR, just north of Rogers. The park preserves the battlefield in honor of the nearly 3,500 soldiers who died here on March 7th and 8th, 1862.

Visitors to the park will find 4,300-acres to explore and several ways to enjoy them. Highlights include two Civil War battlefields, historic Elkhorn Tavern, a visitor’s center, hiking trails, and more.

Be sure to stop by the Pea Ridge Visitor Center and Museum to take in the interactive exhibits. Then you’ll want to embark on the 7-mile, self-guided road tour with 28 points of interest. You can also explore the park with a Guided Cell Phone Tour. 7 miles of hiking and biking trails leading to various points of interest.

A 2.5 mile section of The Trail Of Tears also runs through the park. For those unaware, the Trail of Tears is the path thousands of Native Americans walked and died along during a forced relocation in the 1820s.

Pea Ridge Military Park is open 365 days a year, 6am to dusk. Learn more at the park website.

Spend a few hours at the park learning about our great nation’s storied heritage, then it’s an easy and scenic drive back to the comfort of your Sugar Ridge Resort suite or cabin on Beaver Lake. The perfect day!

Pivot Rock Park and Natural Bridge

Pivot Rock at Pivot Rock Park

If you enjoy unique rock formations, you’ll want to make time to visit Eureka Springs’ Pivot Rock Park and Natural Bridge, less than a half hour’s drive from our Beaver Lake.

Arkansas is full of fascinating natural wonders. Caves, natural springs, lakes, mountains, and parks that can amaze, baffle, and even inspire you. Of course, guests of our Beaver Lake cabins and suites will not need to go far for that. You can easily fill your days with good ol’ mother nature right here on the lake. Hiking, fishing, paddling, swimming, and so much more.

That being said, sometimes even the best places can get stale and a simple change of scenery can do wonders. Luckily, the surrounding area is loaded with things to see and do, no matter which way you turn. Eureka Springs is right next door, after all. Home to shopping, dining, museums, live entertainment and, yes, plenty of natural attractions, too. Things like Pivot Rock Park and Natural Bridge!

Pivot Rock Park & Natural Bridge

Pivot Rock Park is located a few miles north of Eureka Springs, just off of Highway 62 West, at 1708 Pivot Rock Road. This is, as I mentioned above, just a short and scenic drive from Sugar Ridge Resort.

The park, a small and historic roadside attraction, is full of small caves, deep gullies, and strange, stacked rock formations. In fact, the area is so unique that it was once featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Legend has it the area also once served as hideout for Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang. That’s such a common claim around these parts, however, that you can very much take the claim with a grain of salt.

Visitors to the park pay a small fee to enter and explore at their own pace. Pivot Rock and the Natural Bridge formations are reached via a short hike on a paved trail, through a nicely wooded area.

Natural Bridge at Pivot Rock Park

Natural Bridge is the first big attraction along the trail, found jutting up from the rugged hillside. The trail allows you to view this curious and weathered stone arch from all sides. It really does look like just a bridge, albeit from some fantasy illustration.

Pivot Rock is next along the trail and impossible to miss. The naturally formed, 12 foot tall, upside down, pyramid-shaped rock looks to be balancing on its tip. The top is about ten feet wide, yet the base only around a foot thick! Ripley’s billed it as the largest freestanding rock formation with a base ten times smaller than its top. You’d think it would fall right over but it’s really very stable and the perfect subject for fun photos.

Pivot Rock Park is open March to October, 10am to 5pm, everyday but Thursday. Learn more about the park by visiting it on Facebook.

Those looking to spend a little more time in the area should consider a stop by the stunningly beautiful Thorncrown Chapel, just 10 minutes from Pivot Rock at 12968 US-62, Eureka Springs, AR.

Then it’s just a short hop back to your digs at Sugar Ridge Resort. Perfect!

Explore Quigley’s Castle

Quigley's Castle

Those looking for a unique experience will enjoy visiting Quigley’s Castle, an unusual and historic family home known as “The Ozarks’ Strangest Dwelling.”

The Beaver Lake area is home to a number of unique and memorable attractions. Thorncrown Chapel, War Eagle Cavern, Christ of the Ozarks, Blue Spring Heritage Center, and so much more. None are quite as idiosyncratic as Quigley’s Castle, however.

The “Castle” is really a farm house, built just south of Eureka Springs in the 1940’s – but that’s where what’s normal about this family home ends.

When visiting, one of the first things you’ll notice about the property is all the plush and colorful foliage. Wildflowers, antique roses, and 400+ varieties of perennials surround the home. Then again, maybe the towering, vine-covered rock pillars, “bottle trees”, and other rock sculptures will catch your eye first. Or perhaps the two-story, plant-filled, stone/shell/fossil/arrowhead-covered house will be what first grabs your attention.

Whichever detail, you can credit Elise Quigley (1910-1984).

A Castle’s Humble Origins

When Albert and Elise Quigley first moved onto the property in 1930, their only dwelling was an old lumber shack. Albert promised he’d build Elise a real home and that she could design it. Excited to move out of the decrepit old shack, she got right to it.

Even the best of intentions can fall by the wayside, however. Five children into the marriage, the Quigley’s were still living in the old lumber shack. Elise had had enough. One morning, after Albert had left for work, she and the children pulled the old shack down. A replacement would have to be built now, and Elise was ready with her design.

Construction on the house began in 1943, with lumber sourced directly from the farm. A nature lover, Elise dreamed of a house that was less a box keeping nature out than one that contained and reflected the natural world back. 28 huge, picture windows in the walls remove the sense of being indoors and allow natural light to fill the space within. Her unusual design separates the interior living space from the exterior walls with four feet wide flower beds. Here she nurtured flowering, tropical plants that have since grown all of the way up to the second story ceiling!

Elise’s lifelong habit of collecting fossils, crystals, arrowheads, and other interesting small stones came into play when she decided to rock the outside of the house with her collection. The task took her three years to complete and then spread out into the garden and yard. Here she constructed fences, chairs, statues, and other whimsical forms using found stone, shell, and crystal.

Elise Quigley’s quirky love of collections can be found indoors, too. She spent forty years filling every possible nook and cranny of the house with her collections and creations. Antiques, mementos, and lots more stone, shell, and crystal. Her famous “Butterfly Wall” is a particularly spectacular example and must be seen in person to be truly appreciated.

Inside Quigley's Castle
Inside plantings
Quigley's Castle shell corner
Shell Corner
Quigley's Castle Butterfly Wall
The Butterfly Wall
Quigley's Castle Butterfly Wall detail
Butterfly Wall detail

Quigley’s Castle

Elise Quigley died in 1984, leaving her magnificently singular home behind for others to enjoy. Quigley’s Castle can be found at 274 Quigley Castle Road in Eureka Springs; just a scenic half hour’s drive from Sugar Ridge Resort and our Beaver Lake cabins.

The Castle is open March through October. Hours are 10am to 4:30pm, April 1st through October 31st. Call for March and November hours: (479) 253-8311 Closed Sundays and Thursdays. Visit the Castle website for more information.

Discover Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Art fans staying at our Beaver Lake cabins will be pleased to know that Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is only a scenic 40 minute drive away, in Bentonville, AR. The museum’s stunning, 50,000 square foot gallery space contains a considerable collection of important American artworks, spanning from Colonial times to the present.

The museum opened in 2011 as the brain-child of Alice Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune. The facility includes galleries, meeting and classroom spaces, a library, sculpture garden, and a glass-enclosed gathering hall that can hold up to 300 people.

Visiting Crystal Bridges

The first amazing work of art you’ll see upon arrival at Crystal Bridges is the museum itself.  The elegant glass-and-wood construction, designed by architect Moshe Safdie and engineer Buro Happo,  consists of eight linked pavilions, nestled in the forest and wrapping around and over two large, spring-fed pools. The effect is at once striking and calming; the perfect merging of nature and design. Some spend almost as much time admiring the museum and grounds as they do the art it contains!

Not that the work inside is anything to sniff at.

Crystal Bridges’ collection includes major works by such important American artists as John Singer Sargent, George Catlin, George Bellows, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Janet Sobel, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and so many others. As I say at the top, the museum’s permanent collection contains works from 500 years of American art.

The facility also includes classroom spaces, a library, sculpture garden, and a glass-enclosed gathering hall for up to 300 people. You’ll also discover a store, restaurant, coffee bar, outdoor event spaces, and nature trails. A number of the trails on the grounds lead to downtown Bentonville.

Leo Villareal's Buckyball
Children marveling at the beauty of Crystal Bridges
Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges is located at 600 Museum Way, in Bentonville AR, just 40 minutes from Sugar Ridge Resort. Visit crystalbridges.org for hours and more information. You can also find the museum on Facebook.

It would be very easy to make a fun day-trip out of your visit! Other, popular area attractions include the 21c Museum, the Peel Museum & Botanical Garden, The Walmart Museum, shops, restaurants, and many other points of interest.

What things do you like to see or do? Let us know and we’ll help point you in the right direction. Sugar Ridge Resort loves sharing the area with our guests!

Visit Blue Spring Heritage Center

Blue Spring Heritage Center

Visit Blue Spring Heritage Center and discover one of the area’s last uncapped springs, along with fascinating history, unique geology, and unrivaled natural beauty.

Blue Spring is a natural spring that fills a deep, round pool with 38 million gallons of fresh, clear water every day. The water from the pool first spills over into a trout-filled lagoon, then tumbles over a small dam down to the White River.

People have been visiting the spring for thousands of years. In fact, a 1971 archeological dig at the spring uncovered artifacts dating back to 8000 BCE. Visiting Native Americans very clearly used the nearby, overhanging bluff as a shelter, earning it a much-deserved spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, you’ll still find much of what drew those original visitors to Blue Spring, along with landscaped gardens, a Visitor Center, and more.

Best of all, Blue Spring Heritage Center is located at 1537 Co Rd 210, an easy and scenic 15 minutes from the door of our Beaver Lake cabins.

Visiting Blue Spring Heritage Center

Cliffs at Blue Spring Heritage Center

Blue Spring Heritage Center offers 33 acres to soak up but we suggest starting off at the Visitor Center. Here you can view a short film on the spring’s history, along with historic artifacts and photos.

After that, it’s time to hit the trails. The center is home to a mile of well maintained and popular walking trails. Interpretive signs throughout provide insight as  you walk through the gardens and to different points of interest.

Blue Spring Heritage Center

Highlights include the historic Bluff Shelter and Blue Spring’s trout-filled lagoon. A gazebo overlooking the lagoon is a popular place to stop and take in the view. You can also feed the trout, if you wish. Fun!

You’ll also find three special and lovely gardens at Blue Spring Heritage Center. The Medicine Wheel Garden contains plants that are important to Native American spiritual practices. The Three Sisters Garden demonstrates native ingenuity via a traditional interdependent community of plants. The Woodland Gardens features plantings among the native timber.

Other attractions at the center include a monument to President Bill Clinton and the ruins of a historic Blue Spring Mill. The mill, located some 300 feet downstream from the spring, was built in the early 1840’s to grind corn. A newer mill replaced it in 1903, only to be taken back down in 1943. Today, only the turbine remains.

Spend an hour or two walking the trails and taking in the beauty at Blue Spring, then it’s only 15 minutes to the comforts of your accommodations at Sugar Ridge Resort. Fantastic!

Blue Spring Heritage Center is open daily, 9am to 6pm, from March 15th through November 29. Learn more at bluespringheritage.com. You can also find the Center on Facebook.

Discover Beautiful Thorncrown Chapel

Thorncrown Chapel

If unique and beautiful architecture in a truly sublime setting sounds like something you’d enjoy, we recommend a visit to Thorncrown Chapel. The stunningly crafted architectural marvel is nestled in the woods, just 15 minutes from Sugar Ridge Resort.

Visitors to the Beaver Lake Eureka Springs area will find no end of attractions and activities to keep them occupied. Outdoor adventure like boating, fishing, and hiking, along with some of the region’s best art, food, fun, shopping, sightseeing, and more.

The area is home to lots of unique sights and attractions, as well. Natural caverns, springs, and rock formations, along with the fascinating works of man. Things like historic downtown Eureka Springs, Christ of the Ozarks, and Quigley’s Castle. In this latter category, nothing is quite as affecting or beautiful as Thorncrown Chapel.

Thorncrown Chapel

Thorncrown Chapel is located at 12968 Highway 62 West, just outside Eureka Springs, AR, a 15 minute drive from our Beaver Lake cabins.

Thorncrown Chapel interior design

The chapel, built in 1980 by E. Fay Jones, stands on a narrow, wooded shelf on a north slope of the Ozarks. Landowner Jim Reed contracted Jones, who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright, to create a structure that would attract passer-by to worship.

The chapel is simple, yet enchantingly majestic and considered one of the finest religious spaces of modern times. Many think the structure is open to the air when they first see it. That’s because the chapel walls are glass. 425 separate sheets, in fact, comprising over six thousand square feet of glass!

The rest of the chapel, with little exception, was constructed using materials taken from the local wilderness. The intricate and mostly wooden structure rises forty-eight feet up into the forest canopy. The foundation uses more than 100 tons of native stone, topped with colored flagstone, allowing it to blend seamlessly into its surroundings. Inside, angular beams support the peaked roof with perfect, interlocking symmetry.

It truly is a sight to be seen. No matter your personal beliefs, its beauty is universal.

Thorncrown Chapel is open March through November, 9am to 5pm, with occasional closings for special events. Sunday services are 9am and 11am, April through October. November through the third week in December, 11am only. Services last approximately one hour. Everyone is welcome.

Learn more by visiting the chapel online at thorncrown.com. You can also find the chapel on Facebook.

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