The Church at Hogscald

Prominent Ozark author Otto Earnest Rayburn remarked that the pioneers of Hogscald were "the salt of the earth in character. Religion was the bullwark of their natures." It should come as no surprise that as the smoke cleared from the war between the states, the devout people of this area longed for a suitable place of worship.

In the 1880's, they found their divine temple in the shelter of a massive rock bluff fifty feet long and thirty feet wide, below Augur Falls. This was the same rock shelter that the Native Americans had utilized for their own spiritual ceremonies prior to American settlement. Featuring a natural auditorium, preacher's rock pulpit, choir corridors, and baptismal pool fed by the adjacent Hogscald Creek, it was as though this location was hand-sculpted by the divine creator especially for worship. A dam was built to hold extra water for the immersion pool during dry spells, and a local man by the name of Ben Prickett organized a group of nearby farmers to hone a collection of large split logs for seating. Preacher W. M. Weatherman journeyed from his home on Middle Clifty Creek each Sunday to conduct church services.

Local author Cora Pinkley-Call pays tribute to the good Reverend in her 1930 book titled Pioneer Tales of Eureka Springs, in which she recalls, "The weather was never too hot nor too cold for him to saddle his horse and ride for miles and miles to preach his precious book, and I want to say while he is still living, that I know of no one man that has done more for the good of this country and its spiritual welfare, than he."