In Winter, Visitors Escape To Eureka Springs For The Spas

(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) — Couples often go on vacation to discover new things about a destination.  From April through November, they might visit Eureka Springs for the emerald green, forested Ozark hills of spring and summer or those same hills ablaze with fiery color in fall; playing on two area lakes or three magnificent rivers; or for some fun at man-made attractions unique to this village which has been recognized as one of America’s Distinctive Destinations.  But when winter comes, most couples escape to this extraordinary destination primarily for one three-letter word, spa.

Savvy winter travelers find that vacationing in Eureka Springs during these months offers them very attractive prices and packages.  Packages that not only include lodging but such mondo pampering services for individuals and couples as hot stone massages, duet massages, facials, and full body wraps that warm the body, mind and spirit.  Many add salon treatments to the regimen in order that their New Year’s “new look” resolution can become a reality.

Many of the more than the dozen or so professionally-operated spa facilities in Eureka Springs also offer such unique services as aromatherapy, body scrubs, facials, manicures, pedicures, self-heating mud treatments, plus the most popular Swedish and deep-tissue massages.  A complete list of local spas and services can be found at eurekaspringsspa.com.

Something new this winter for one’s extraordinary Eureka Springs escape is the new Arkansas Art Trail with its anchor, a true masterpiece; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art located 45 minutes west of Eureka Springs.  This $500,000,000 facility is said to be the finest collection of art of this kind in the world.

“With the advent of Crystal Bridges there grew an overwhelming interest in art in the northwest corner of our state,” said Bill Ott director of communications for two of Eureka Springs’ historic hotels, the 1886 Crescent and the 1905 Basin Park.  “The Arkansas Art Trail links created art, like at Crystal Bridges; art being created, as in the dozens of living galleries in Eureka Springs; and breathtaking natural sights and vistas that provide the inspiration of great art throughout The Ozarks and along such area rivers as Buffalo National River Park.”

Eclectic shopping, one of Eureka Springs’ hallmark activities, is still viable during the winter with many shops offering great post-holiday bargains.  Restaurants of note also open their doors to wintertime guests for a relaxing gourmet sojourn.  Nightspots offer live music, adult beverages and great opportunities for dancing like “the stars”.  Historical museums and unique attractions like Turpentine Creek, a refuge for lions, tigers and other big cats, welcome visitors for a more relaxed viewing.

“Special events have been added to Eureka’s winter bill of fare,” Ott noted.  “Such events as Eureka Gras, Eureka Springs’ answer to Mardi Gras; and of course the most romantic time of the year, Valentine’s Day week.”

Eureka Springs is also attractively situated as the perfect hub for day trips.  Many travel northeast to Branson (MO), only an hour away, for their shows and outlet malls.  Others travel to the west less than an hour for visits to Hobbs State Park Conservation Area with its Pigeon Roost Trail; War Eagle Mill, a working water-driven gristmill; and two “must see” sesquicentennial Civil War sites, Pea Ridge National Military Park and Prairie Grove State Park.

“Many already know that Eureka Springs is alive and well during the winter months and come annually,” concluded Ott, “yet we still have a few spa appointment openings, just in case anyone else would like to come and join us for supreme relaxation.  It’s a great way to start the new year.”

Check availability for a winter vacation by calling 877-4972 at the Basin Park Hotel.

Check availability for HOT Deals at a Mountaintop Spa Resort-Crescent Hotel

He has a kind nature and authoritative tone. He speaks with skepticism and a hint of an English accent. His name is Keith Scales and he may be the last person you would expect to find directing ghost tours at the famous Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs.

The Crescent Hotel was built in 1886 and sits overlooking the Victorian village of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Widely acclaimed to be “America’s Most Haunted Hotel,” the Crescent has a rich, recorded history.  You can call it a mecca for ghost hunters and serious paranormal investigators.

Much of the hotel’s haunted history stems from a period in the 1930’s when a man named Norman Baker acquired the Crescent Hotel and opened a hospital. He promised society a non-surgical cure for cancer. Unfortunately, the Baker cure would not save the lives of many of his patients. Stemming from years of fights with the American Medical Association and numerous other issues, Baker would be judged a charlatan and end up in jail.

Keith Scales is the director of the wildly popular Crescent Hotel Ghost Tours. In fact Keith is the key to the Crescent Hotel’s ESP Weekend. “I love history and Shakespeare,” he confessed. A writer, actor and director, Keith moved from London to America when he was 26 years old. Passionate about Greek dramas and theater he found a home in the artistic town of Eureka Springs. His love of history makes him a valuable asset to the Crescent Hotel. Relentless research of one of the Crescent Hotel’s famous owners Dr. Norman Baker led Keith to eventually write and act in the hotel’s newest attraction, Midnight Theater. Keith’s endlessly inquisitive (and skeptical) nature has landed him coordinating ESP Weekend for 2012. “Just because we can’t explain or understand something does not mean that it does not exist,” he answered when asked if he was a believer in ghosts. It is one of the most interesting preoccupations in human history…to explain the unexplained.

America’s Most Haunted Hotel hosts ESP Weekend every January. It is an opportunity for those who believe in paranormal activity to gain full and exclusive access to the most famous sites within the hotel. For those who have a curiosity, it is a chance to explore one of the country’s most intriguing historic structures and learn about current trends in parapsychological investigation. Whether ESP Weekend attendees come armed with a camera, video recorder, or more sophisticated scientific equipment, they all discover a thrilling and entertaining weekend.

You only have to turn on the TV to realize pop culture’s fascination with the paranormal. From SyFy to Biography to the Travel Channel, each network has its own version of ghost hunters and psychics investigating legends and unexplained occurrences in front of the camera. This is more than just a passing fad. Investigations into the paranormal began as early as 1886 and have consistently had a firm basis in science. Although a worldwide interest, prestigious American universities likeStanford and Duke began critical studies of ESP and psychokinesis in the laboratory using experiments to collect quantitative data usingstatisticalapproaches in their studies. In the 1960’s the established Parapsychological Association took a large step in advancing the field of parapsychology when it became affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest general scientific society in the world. Today, the University of Virginia’s Department of Psychiatric Medicine and the University of Arizona’s Vertias Laboratory as well as the Institute of Noetic Sciences are scientific leaders in the field of parapsychology which include studies in a number paranormal phenomenon, including but not limited to:

• Telepathy: Transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses.
• Precognition: Perception of information about future places or events before they occur.
• Clairvoyance: Obtaining information about places or events at remote locations, by means unknown to current science.
• Psychokinesis: The ability of the mind to influence matter, time, space, or energy by means unknown to current science.
• Near-death experiences: An experience reported by a person who nearly died, or who experienced clinical death and then revived.
• Reincarnation: The rebirth of a soul or other non-physical aspect of human consciousness in a new physical body after death.
• Apparitional experiences: Phenomena often attributed to ghosts and encountered in places a deceased individual is thought to have frequented, or in association with the person’s former belongings.

The Crescent Hotel owes its reputation at least in part to the televised investigations and aired stories on popular shows like TAPS and Biography Channel’s My Ghost Story. The hotel also keeps a database of photos submitted by the guests who stay at the Crescent Hotel. See the photos guests have submitted by visiting America’s Most Haunted Hotel.

On a ghost tour, Keith takes people to the basement of the hotel and leads them back to the morgue, (built in the 1930’s and still intact). The history learned on the tour will make you wonder whether the medical methods used here were introduced before their time and based on unlocking the power of the human brain to heal or just nonsense? It is an area of investigation to this day. Keith extends an invitation, “come and spend a weekend at the Crescent.  Discover credible and rational explanations to the unexplained if you can.”

If you are intrigued by parapsychology and want to investigate one of America’s most reportedly active historic properties then consider attending ESP Weekend.Details here.

ESP Weekend 2012 Sets Full Agenda

(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) — The upcoming ESP (Eureka Springs Paranormal) Weekend 2012, scheduled for January 6-8 in the 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa, has released its three-day agenda.  The agenda includes not only the very popular complete hotel access for attendees to ghost hunt on their own but this year attendees will also be able to attend numerous seminars, speakers, cinematic presentations, and a live theatrical presentation.  The hotel, rated as America’s most haunted by Trip Advisor and Yahoo.com, is located here atop Crescent Mountain on the historic loop at 75 Prospect Avenue.

“What we are trying to do is build upon the success of past ESP Weekends and give attendees a full paranormal experience from start to finish,” said Keith Scales, the hotels ghost tour director.  “This year we think we have added the ‘wow factor’ with musical presentations by ‘Still On The Hill’, a well known duo who plays exotic instruments creating a kaleidoscope of musical color and texture.”

Weekend activities also include ghost sweeps, several paranormal-based documentaries, technophilia seminar, off-site investigations, themed movies and experiments in telepathy.  “However, there will be plenty of time for attendees to tour this haunted mountaintop spa resort, even the morgue, just like TAPS from ‘Ghost Hunters’ did several years ago and then a chance to compare their findings with fellow paranormal enthusiasts,” added Scales.

The weekend starts during Friday check-in when attendees will receive their “paranormal packet”.  Following an opening reception; attendees will take the very popular hotel ghost tour; see a film; browse a book fair; and then be part of the exclusive audience for the hotel’s new Midnight Theatre production of “In The Morgue of The Mastermind:  Norman Baker Speaks”, an intimate look into the psyche of the charlatan that operated the Crescent Hotel in the late 1930s as a cancer curing hospital.

Saturday has attendees taking an active part in technophilia and telepathy seminars, more ghost hunting in some of the hotel’s most active rooms, another documentary, a movie, plus a séance.

“Perhaps the most popular event each year during this weekend is when attendees -armed with flash drives- compare their findings to the findings of others.  They then share those images and EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) by swapping flash drives and then downloading each other’s evidence,” Scales explained.

The ESP Weekend is an overnight package.  Full details can be found on the Crescent Hotel’s paranormal website, americasmosthauntedhotel.com .

Ring In A Historically “Fun” New Year In Eureka Springs

(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) – As Eureka Springs’ end-of-the-year party goers begin to make their plans as to where they will be ringing in the New Year they can simply ask, “Where is the most fun?”.  It has often been said that in Eureka “the most fun is downtown”.  In an effort to live up to that benchmark, this Ozark community’s premiere historic downtown hotel, the 1905 Basin Park, has put together an evening extravaganza for December 31, 2011.

The Basin Park will repeat their very popular New Year’s Eve event, The Ballroom Blitz.  This gala evening that begins at 8 o’clock includes the top floor party upstairs in the Barefoot Ballroom featuring Arkansas’ greatest party band The Ariels, party favors, great snacks and the “highest” midnight countdown downtown with a champagne toast at the first stroke of 2012.

“It seems as though the people who like to party until the world looks flat, their hotel of choice in Northwest Arkansas has been The Basin Park, “ said Jack Moyer, hotel general manager, “which explains why our Barefoot Ballroom each N.Y.E. is wall-to-wall with joy-filled revelers.  The Ariels escalate that festive frenzy.”

Tickets for the event are available at the hotel’s front desk for $25.00 per person.  For additional information one may call 479-253-7837 or go online at basinpark.com .

A Forest of Christmas Trees Glows High Above The Ozarks

(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) – In one of the highest points in all of the Arkansas Ozarks sits a mountaintop spa resort that was built back in 1886.  The hotel is surrounded by 15 acres of forestland crisscrossed with walking trails and manicured gardens adjacent to the four-story, limestone structure.  It is here in these manicured gardens that every December for the past six years that well-decorated, illuminated Christmas trees seem to spring up.

The 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa’s “Christmas Forest” is one of the most popular events each year of the hotel’s holiday.  The hotel’s Director of Marketing and Communications Bill Ott explains, “Our Christmas Forest was the idea of our General Manager Jack Moyer six years ago.  It is a concept that started with a dozen trees and in 2011 saw the forest grow to 30.”

The concept is a simple one.  Each tree is decorated by and for a local area charity.  Following a grand forest illumination ceremony, the forest opens to the public.  Then from that evening through New Year’s Eve, visitors to the forest can “vote” for their favorite tree.  Each vote costs one dollar.  At the end of the voting period, the “ballots” are added up.  Each charity’s tree gets to keep all the monetary “votes” each received.  The top three vote-getting charities get to not only keep their “ballots” but The Crescent awards $200, $100, and $50, respectively.

Those charities represented in the 2011 forest are Matter of Trust, Aveda’s Earth, Toys For Tots, Eureka Springs Historical Museum, OARS, Good Shepherd Humane Society, St. John’s Hospice, People Helping People, Heifer International, ECHO, Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, Ozarks Chorale, Eureka Springs Downtown Network, Eureka Springs Boy Scouts, Eureka Springs Public Schools, Clear Spring School, Eureka Springs Rotary Club, Loaves & Fishes, Preservation Society, Flint Street Food Bank, Farmers’ Market, Greater Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce, Eureka Springs Hospital, Merlin Foundation, W.T. Fockers, Salvation Army, CASE, Operation Smiles, Cello Choir, and Berryville Elementary Nursing Services.

“We only use real trees.  The hotel purchases the trees, put lights on each and then each individual charity decorates their own tree,” noted Moyer.  “It has become quite a decorating competition between the charities.  Not only do they work hard to make their trees the most beautiful, most unique, but each charity works hard to ‘get the vote out’.”

“Our Christmas Forest has become a community and regional draw during the holidays,” Ott added.  “And with the leaves off the abundant hardwood trees, our illuminated evergreen forest can be seen for miles.”

Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is a resort community located just 53 miles southwest of Branson, MO and 156 miles east of Tulsa, OK.  The 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America and will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2011.

For more information on The Crescent’s “Christmas Forest”, one should contact the hotel’s Administrative Marketing Assistant Amanda Haley at <amanda.haley1@gmail.com>.

Norman Baker “Comes Back To Life”

“CANCER CURING DOCTOR” NORMAN BAKER COMES BACK TO LIFE IN NEW THEATRICAL PRESENTATION

AT “AMERICA’S MOST HAUNTED HOTEL”, THE 1886 CRESCENT HOTEL & SPA

(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) –Thanks to such occurrences as being named on several lists as the Number One Haunted Hotel in America by such sources as TripAdvisor.com most people know or have at least heard of the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa, located here high in the Arkansas Ozarks, and its “guests who checked out but never left”.  However, not that many know about the infamous Norman Baker, the faux doctor who purchased and operated this mountaintop spa resort in the late 1930s to be used as his “cancer curing” hospital.  But all of that is about to change.

Starting on Friday, November 18, the character of Norman Baker will be brought to life in an hour-long theatrical presentation entitled “Midnight Theatre In the Morgue of the Mastermind: Norman Baker Speaks”.  This intimate portrayal of this flamboyant, dynamic character will take place in The Crescent’s “Faculty Lounge” of this proud member of Historic Hotels of America.

The creator, writer, producer and star of this one-man multi-media show is award-winning actor Keith Scales, formerly of Portland (OR).  Scales’ exhaustive research on Baker will allow him to present Baker’s story from Baker’s perspective as Baker himself.

The hour-long production finishes in the hotel’s macabre morgue, a leftover from the Baker Hospital days, and will leave it up to members of the audience to decide if this native of Muscatine, Iowa, was a genius or a charlatan.

“Norman Baker was self-educated, a vaudevillian, inventor, radio pioneer, publisher, a mail-order mastermind and a millionaire several times over,” tells Scales.  “However, he became most notorious for claiming to have discovered a cure for cancer, a claim he ‘served’ to his patients when he ran Baker’s Cancer Curable Hospital in a retro-fitted mountaintop spa resort in the Ozarks of Arkansas in the late 1930s.”

It is said that much of the paranormal activity that haunts The Crescent can be traced back to Baker’s days while in the five-story limestone structure.  Hospital artifacts, such as Baker’s autopsy table and walk-in cooler where he kept cadavers and other body parts, still exist in the hotel’s basement.

“Since 1997 when Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased The Crescent and began to embrace the tales of the property’s spirits, probably more than 10,000 people have walked the hotel halls during one of our nightly ghost tours,” Scales added.  “In those tours, patrons were told of Norman Baker.  Now, thanks to our new Midnight Theatre production, patrons can meet Norman Baker.”

Midnight Theatre’s In the Morgue of the Mastermind: Norman Baker Speaks will debut on Friday night, November 18 at 11 o’clock and can be seen at that same time every Friday and Saturday night.  Due to limited seating, advanced ticket purchases are encouraged.  Those tickets, as well as the nightly ghost tour tickets, may be purchased online at americasmosthauntedhotel.com, by calling 800-342-9766, or at the hotel’s front desk.

For more information, one may go to americasmosthauntedhotel.com.

Yahoo.com Selects

The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa

As The #1 Haunted Hotel In America

One of the leading Internet providers of reviews for lodging in the world, travel.yahoo.com, recently announced “America’s Five Most Haunted Hotels”…and at the top of the list at #1 was the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa located in the Arkansas Ozarks in Eureka Springs.

For years, hotel guests who come for a wedding, romantic getaway, and family vacations have enjoyed “hunting” for ghosts and recounting paranormal tales accompanied by photographic images, many of which can be found on americasmosthauntedhotel.com .  Fans of the paranormal can actually tour the Crescent any night of the year.  And with the exploding interest in the hotel’s “guests who check out but never leave”, tours have been selling out nightly so guests and visitors are encouraged to buy Crescent Hotel Ghost Tour tickets online .

October seems to be “the” month to visit Eureka Springs and the Crescent, and the hotel still has a few nights with rooms available:  October 24, 25 and 26; and November 1, 2 and 3.  Online booking is available.

Some great paranormal events are coming to the Crescent.  On November 18 the hotel debuts its Midnight Theater production of “In the Morgue of the Mastermind:

Norman Baker Speaks”.  It is a nightly live presentation that introduces guests to one of the greatest frauds in American history – notorious Norman Baker who operated a cancer curing hospital in the Crescent in the late 1930s.  During the first full weekend in January 2012 (January 6, 7 and 8), amateur ghost hunters from all over the country will be coming to The Second Annual ESP (Eureka Springs Paranormal) Weekend where ESP Weekend guests get full and free access to all areas of the hotel including the “morgue”.

By the way, if paranormal devotees want two nights of exploring two different hotels, the 1905 Basin Park Hotel, located in Historic Downtown Eureka Springs, offers the “Paranormal Pair” package where guests spend one night at the Basin Park and take that hotel’s guided ghost tour and then the next night move to the Crescent for sleeping and taking the Crescent Hotel Ghost Tour.  Double the paranormal… all in one trip!

Celebrity Ghost Discovered In “America’s Most Haunted Hotel”

(EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS) — Spirits from various places and various eras make up the “guest register” of those “guests who checked out but never left” what many consider America’s most haunted hotel”, the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.  This five-story mountaintop spa resort each year seems to discover yet another one of those famous “guests” by name.  This year it was dancing legend of the early to mid twentieth century, Irene Castle.

“We were thrilled to find out that Ms. Castle still visits the hotel as she did during her final years here as a resident of Eureka Springs (AR),” stated Bill Ott, marketing director of this Historic Hotel of America, “and it was only as we linked casual references of a young girl describing a paranormal encounter were we able to piece together that her encounter was with someone who once frequented our property.”

Irene Castle and husband Vernon were the best-known ballroom dancers of the early twentieth century.  They operated ballroom dancing clubs and would travel the country charging as much as a thousand dollars an hour for lessons.  She appeared in a Broadway show and several movies.  Her popularization of social dancing with her husband was portrayed in a movie starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire entitled “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle”.

“It was after the death of her fourth husband when Irene moved to Eureka Springs in 1959 to be near her son from her third marriage,” Ott explained.  “She bought a house on a small parcel of land just blocks from the Crescent, a place she called Destiny Farm.  She died in 1969 while living here in Eureka.”

Ott said that locals have told him that it was her love of the social life in her latter years that brought her to the Crescent on numerous occasions.  It is said of Irene that even in her sixties that she was still “trim, lovely and fashionable lady with nothing to do but embrace the social scene of Eureka Springs” for which the Crescent was the epicenter.

“It was a family that vacations annually at the Crescent who were part of the encounter where links to Irene came to the fore,” Ott said.  “This story, which was recounted on a recent episode of the Biography’s Channel My Ghost Story, takes place when the mother was giving her daughter a bath in their room and the young girl began talking as if she was having a conversation with someone.

“The young girl said there was a princess standing right behind her mother but the mother saw no one.  The mother thought it was unusual because her daughter was using such words as pirouette, ballerina, tango, princess, castle and bob.

“It wasn’t until the girl’s father read about Irene Castle’s connection to the Crescent on our hotel blog was he able to the puzzle pieces of that encounter together.  He writes, ‘the strange words my daughter had said that we had made note of began to make sense.  The princess was someone in a costume.  That princess did not live in a castle; she was Castle.  Bob was a hairstyle popularized by Ms. Castle.  Those dancing terms were words commonly used by a professional dancer.  It was clear, my daughter had been talking to Irene Castle.’”

Ms. Castle is only one of many paranormal guests who have been named at the Crescent.  “Two of the better-known nom de spirits are Michael, the Irish stonemason who fell to his death during construction of the hotel in the footprint of Room 218; and Theodora, the cancer patient who fumbles for her key outside Room 419,” Ott noted.

Whether named or nameless the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa has become a haven for those wanting to encounter the shadow, the whisper, the tingling touch of someone, something who stealthily walks the halls of the hotel proper.  Nightly ghost tours have been selling out for years.  In fact, hotel management now encourages guests and visitors to purchase ghost tour tickets in advance to ensure their opportunity to walk with these Ozark specters on the night they desire.

“October sees the interest grow exponentially in the paranormal aspect of our hotel,” Ott concluded,  “however the frenzied interest is year ‘round.  It has escalated so much that later this fall we will be introducing ‘Midnight In The Morgue: A Portrait of Norman Baker’.  This exciting new, multi-media theatrical presentation will give our guests and visitors a chance to ‘meet the man’ who purchased the Crescent and operated the hotel in the late ‘30s as a cancer curing hospital.”

For more information, one may go to americasmosthauntedhotel.com.

END

(EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS) — Any fall is a great time for friends to gather, board a motor coach and travel to the Arkansas Ozarks and especially Eureka Springs: Arkansas’ “extraordinary escape”.  This fall, however, starting on 11/11/11, that motor coach tour can add a couple new and exciting elements to their itinerary: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Pea Ridge National Military Park.  Both attractions are part of the new Arkansas Art Trail.

“The motor coach inquiries we get from group tour leaders each fall always include the question, ‘What’s new?’ and this year we can answer with two nationally significant itinerary additions,” said Linda Box, group travel sales manager for Eureka Springs’ Landmark Hotels: 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa and 1905 Basin Park Hotel.  “Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville AR is a mere 40 miles to the west.  Pea Ridge, site of where Missouri was saved for the Union is on the highway between Eureka and Bentonville and is in the midst of the National Park Service’s sesquicentennial commemoration of The Civil War.  With these great attractions located on the Arkansas Art Trail (www.arkansasarttrail.com), the fact that they are also motor coach friendly and easy travel from the travel hub of Eureka Springs makes their addition to a travel itinerary a perfect fit.”

Eureka Springs is a natural as the hub for this particular spoke in the Arkansas Art Trail since time and time again this village has been selected as one of the most celebrated art destinations in the country.  One such repetitive designation has been made by American Style magazine.  They have named Eureka Springs as a “Top 25 Arts Destinations” in the Small Cities category.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation has given Eureka Springs a true honor in choosing this town of 2,000 as one of America’s “Dozen Distinctive Destinations” as well as placing it on the National Register for Historic Places and of course the Great Passion Play has excelled in the area of performing arts for over 40 years.

“The Crescent Hotel, a Historic Hotel of America is the ideal overnight destination for visitors interested in Crystal Bridges, Pea Ridge and the Arkansas Art Trail,” said Jack Moyer, general manager of the hotels.  “Not only do we greet our motor coach guests in style, give them a history lesson and feed them well but both the hotel is replete with tales of its own as well as being a repository for many unique pieces of American art.  Plus, just outside our front doors, are galleries and working studios, artistic Meccas that seem to blanket Eureka Springs and vistas that provide the inspiration behind the art.”

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is nestled in a pristine Ozark ravine with two creek-fed ponds just off the square in downtown Bentonville.  Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and board member of the Walton Family Foundation is spearheading this nearly half-billion dollar investment.  Upon opening on November 11, 2011, Crystal Bridges’ 217,000 square foot complex will be home to one of, if not the finest American art collections.

Pea Ridge National Military Park was set aside to commemorate The Battle of Pea Ridge.  This battle took place on March 7-8, 1862.  More than 26,000 soldiers fought on these 4,300 acres to decide the fate of Missouri.  The park honors those who fought for their way of life.  It should be noted that Pea Ridge was one of the most pivotal Civil War battles and is the most intact Civil War battlefield in the country.

“Another wonderful aspect of adding these two attractions to an itinerary is that the cost of admission is most reasonable,” Box added.  “Crystal Bridges admission is free and Pea Ridge admission is only $5.00 unless visitors have a “Golden Age” pass which gives pass holders free admission.”

For more information on a group visitation to Eureka Springs, one should contact Box at 800-903-4940 or via email at lindaboxsales@gmail.com.  For information on the Arkansas Art Trail, one should go to arkansasarttrail.com; for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, crystalbridges.org; and for Pea Ridge National Military Park, nps.gov/peri.

(EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS) – With the much anticipated opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art destination meetings are picking Northwest Arkansas for their annual gatherings and bundling in the museum as an off-site activity.  With industry indicators telling us that the days of the large mega-meetings have gone the way of bag phones and wooden pointers.  The meeting planners of today are more focused on the niche, planning smaller destination-oriented meetings that include compelling activities to ensure high attendance.  These are meetings often held within the region, offering great scenic beauty, unique meeting spaces, professional catering, spa services on site, with the availability of great dining, signature activities and golf or fishing.

Eureka Springs AR, chosen by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s as one of “America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations” can deliver on all of these points to those within the ellipse formed by the cities of Tulsa OK, Kansas City MO, Springfield MO, Little Rock AR, Fort Smith AR and the nearby Northwest Arkansas “540 corridor” that includes Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville.  Eureka Springs is less than 35 miles from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as well as being located near three lakes and two rivers.

“Many think of Eureka Springs only as a romantic, fun, wedding and family vacation destination with great scenery and lots of things to do,” said Jodie English, Director of Sales for Eureka Springs’ Crescent Hotel, “but savvy meeting planners see Eureka Springs as a place where their group can fulfill all the goals and objectives of their meeting while offering where the meeting is being held as a perk.”

English stated that meeting planners who choose Eureka Springs have told her, “We enjoy the feeling that our ‘little meeting’ is treated as ‘huge’ here.  We are made to believe that we are a ‘big fish’.  When we are the sole meeting in the hotel we also get special attention from everyone from the front desk, to catering, to the housekeeping staff, and so on.  Our delegates like this VIP feel.”

Planners have told English that the smaller venue also allows for greater networking among delegates and vendors while the resort atmosphere of the community and close proximity to significant attractions helps build attendance.

“Some statewide meetings, for example, where delegates have to come from all corners of Arkansas are more apt to come to a Eureka Springs meeting just because they love this town.  Those planners now bundle fishing on the white river with afternoon trip to the museum and they can count on increased attendance just on that one fact alone,” English explained.

But any meeting planner will tell you that if the “meat” of the meeting is not rewarding, the “appetizers and dessert” don’t mean a thing.  Having this knowledge, hotels, like the ones who English represents –the 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa and the 1905 Basin Park Hotel- have gone to great lengths to ensure that food service is at the highest level, guest rooms are well appointed and twenty-first century technology is ever-present in each and every meeting room no matter how quirky and quaint the space might be.

“At the Basin Park Hotel, for example, one of our most popular meeting rooms is The Atrium, a room designed out of four exterior walls in the center of this horseshoe-shaped building and capped with a glass ceiling,” said English.  “We made sure that we had all of today’s technological needs in place just as if the hotel had been built yesterday rather than 100 years ago.”

INSERT YOU TUBE VIDEOS

Other meeting locations like the Basin Park’s Ozark Room and Barefoot Ballroom and the Crescent’s Crystal Dining Room, Faculty Lounge and Conservatory have also been “wired” for today’s meeting needs.

“The Conservatory at the Crescent also brings the outdoors indoors with three sides of wall-to-wall windows and a double-door that leads out to the Boardwalk and Gazebo.  It keeps delegates from feeling like they are encased in blank room in Anywhere USA plus a chance to step outside in natural beauty.  All of our meeting rooms offer similar ambiance,” English noted.

When it comes to outside-the-hotel meeting activities, English pointed out that some of the more popular Eureka Springs activities chosen by today’s meeting planners include spa visits; shopping; golf; trout fishing on the White River and historic, architectural and artistic sojourns on the Arkansas Art Trail (arkansasarttrail.com)  to such places as the numerous working local art galleries, structural phenomena as Thorncrown Chapel, natural beauty of the Buffalo River – National Park Region and The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, located less than an hour away from Eureka Springs.

“Why are more and more meeting planners choosing a destination meeting in Eureka Springs?” asked English.  “The answer is simple it is the style of meeting that successfully meets the needs and parameters of the meeting, the meeting’s sponsor and the meeting’s delegates.  And isn’t that what every planner is in search of?”

For more information on a Eureka Springs destination meeting, one may go to www.arkansasmeetings.com or for The Crescent Hotel at www.crescenthotel.com.