Another famous visitor was the landscape artist, F. S. VanNess who came to Eureka Springs from Chicago in October, 1902. Sam Leath took him on twenty-eight rides within two weeks, observing the splendor of the Flaming Fall Revue, but the artist did not paint a single picture. When Mr. Leath asked him why he did not paint he replied that the color was beyond his reach; that it would be an insult to the Creator to try to put it on canvas. Later, after the color had faded, he returned to the Ozarks and Mr. Leath guided him over the same route. This time he painted profusely, both landscapes and items of human interest. Two of his paintings may be seen today in the lobby of the Basin Park Hotel. One portrays a group of gamblers seated around a table, the other is that of old Dr. Messick on his burro which was painted in November, 1902. Dr. Messick was a retired Chicago doctor who “went native” and spent his last days living and practicing medicine in the hills near Eureka Springs.
Hog Scald, ten miles south of Eureka Springs is an undiscovered country, so far as tourists are concerned, but for riches of tradition and excellence of scenic beauty it cannot be surpassed in the Ozark highlands. It is a land of clear, gushing springs, laughing brooks and tumbling waterfalls; water everywhere, spilling over rocky ledges and twisting happily through granite-lined canyons. It is a land of massive oak, stately pine and verdant cedar, of purple grapes that cling to broad leafed vines and red berries that tinge the cheeks of the hills with romantic blushes. It seems a land of divine favor and it is indeed fitting that the early pioneers of the thirties and forties found here, in a temple not built with hands, the ideal place to worship God. Under a giant ledge overlooking Hog Scald creek they held worship for more than three-quarters of a century.
The sturdy people who trekked into these hills from Kentucky and Tennessee were the salt of the earth in character. And like their Puritan and Cavalier sires, they did not forget to give thanks to God for the Promised Land of the Ozarks. The visitor who loiters for a season in this Eden of beauty will realize, a little, the influence of such an environment upon these sturdy pioneers who had their feet deeply set in the soil of mediocrity, so far as learning is concerned, but who saw the thumb prints of God in every work of nature.