> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://eurekaholler.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Dump - URL: https://eurekaholler.com/the-dump-vernon-tucker/ - Published: 2026-09-27T20:06:11.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-11T05:27:18.000Z - Description: Eureka Misfits: Vernon Tucker remembers the old Eureka Springs dump, a Hillbilly Mall with a monkey in a fez. - Author: Berkeley Barnhill Stewart ![Eureka Misfits](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/0a/440a274b-a7a3-4d29-b3a8-8af06346fe33/content/images/size/w1200/2026/09/misfits.png) # The Dump as told by Vernon Tucker ![Julie Traxler in sunglasses, arms crossed, at the old Eureka Springs dump with hogs rooting through the trash behind her](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/0a/440a274b-a7a3-4d29-b3a8-8af06346fe33/content/images/size/w1600/2026/09/31131-TraxHogs-m-.jpg) Julie Traxler, down in a dump. Eureka Misfits Collection. Photo © Vernon Tucker. Do not use or reproduce without permission. It was a time in Eureka when Magic was everywhere. Every day was an adventure. It was a time before the ‘Tourist Machine’ had geared up to produce its magnetic attractions. The Rag Lady, the Mushroom Lady, Tex Belt, The Cat Woman, owner of the Love Inn Cattery, Millie and other notable characters roamed the street as if it were a stage in some existential play. The pace was slow, unbothered, and innocent. Ira Whitney, retired nuclear physicist and scientist who helped develop the Bomb, owned a Rock Shop downtown where mysterious things went on late into the night. He showed me how the optical properties of Iceland Feldspar were used to configure the Norden Bombsight. The Evans boys roamed the streets looking for ‘Hippies’ to grab and cut their hair. Even this, looking back, is a charming memory. You must excuse me, but when thinking back on those days, it is difficult not to have it all flood back. Like the one-night-only performance of the great variety show ‘Roaches and White Bread’, or the City Street Sweeper with a broom and a single trash can on wheels who inspired the play ‘Christ of the Trashman’. It was the year before Ritchie Campbell rented the Palace Hotel for one hundred and fifty dollars a month and rented rooms for fifteen dollars a week …(with a ‘Poet Discount’), where we drug mattresses up on the roof on clear nights so we could sleep under the stars … …but, wait …you asked about the dump. Before the word ‘landfill’ was ever invented, we had good old fashioned Dumps. Like so many Eureka institutions in those days, the Dump was a place of great entertainment. I have no idea how the ‘Dump Manager’ was selected by the city but I assume there was some sort of nepotism involved or maybe it might be whoever showed up at the right time. It was, however, a high profile position with a number of creative elements and a wide latitude of options. The Old Dump was not just a place where people threw away things but also a place where people acquired things. It was kind of a Hillbilly Mall. There was a little shack that amounted to the administration building. The management position was revolving every season or every few seasons, so the little shack was employed in various ways. It was where you stopped to pay the flat rate of twenty five cents. I seem to remember that the rate was twenty five cents even if you had nothing to dump but were only coming to shop. One of the more legendary managers, whose name I will not mention, had the place for a number of years. He used the little shack as a store where he sold items he personally retrieved from the stuff tossed down the hill. If you remember, this was not your ordinary dump. Lots of the empty old houses in town were being cleaned out and Eureka had always drawn unique people. Whole attics were dumped without anyone ever looking in the boxes to see what they contained. The Dump was a trove of fabulous items. Thanks to Col. C.C. King, (“Selling The Ozarks For Twenty Years”) who advertised heavily to Chicago retirees, many quality items and valuable antiques were dumped as the old timers died off. Such was the Eureka Dump. A great place to take a date. Well, this one manager had the little shack full to the brim with great stuff that he sold for ten cents, twenty five cents or maybe a half dollar for the really good stuff; like full length mink coats, Steuben glassware, art deco chairs, sterling and costume jewelry …all kinds of good stuff. The little shack was tiny, maybe an eight by eight. The catch was, he was quite the flirt, in a bashful old Hillbilly sort of way. Word was out though, and the ladies went in anyway. They said it was worth it. I don’t know what went on in there but it remained a fine place to take a date for several years. But, I think the dump man you are asking about was a scrawny little fellow with a rather large wife and a young boy who I assumed to be their son. They were only there for one year and they lived on site in the largest Ford Station Wagon ever built. One of them may have had a pallet in the Shack but I am not sure. They had the good stuff in piles outside the shack and no hanky-panky was required to shop. They also had a monkey that lived with them who wore a rhinestone collar and a little fez hat and sat in a small chair on the tailgate of the car. They seemed a happy family and managed the Dump well. The attraction was this: if you bought anything or just stopped to chat on your way out, the little man would give a subtle signal to the boy who was cross-eyed and bore the look of some sort of savant. The little fellow would dash into the tall grass and catch one of those huge grasshoppers of summer and run back to the car with it. While we were all clustered together in conversation, the boy would hand the grasshopper to the monkey who would doff his little hat. Then, the monkey would carefully pull the wings off the insect and eat it. It was quite a show, quite an attraction and we would pull away waving to each other, satisfied and knowing that tomorrow would be another fabulous day in Eureka. “The Dump” © Vernon Tucker. All rights reserved. Shared with permission. *Eureka Misfits refers to Vernon Tucker’s vast collection of stories and photographs from the early days of our rich and peculiar community. The EurekaHoller newsletter will feature lore and images from Eureka’s checkered past, told by the folks who were there. Got one? Holler: [HOLLER@eurekaholler.com](mailto:HOLLER@eurekaholler.com)* [See what's happening this week →](https://eurekaholler.com/calendar/)