In 1967, Gerald L.K. Smith wrote a book, The Miracles on the Mountains, a 76-page work focusing on building the Christ of the Ozarks statue on the east side of Eureka Springs.
Mr. Smith was a third-generation Disciples of Christ minister who insisted he was not a religious fanatic, that his interest was primarily politics. He wrote that “The two greatest facets in the lives of American citizens are Christianity and Constitutional Americans in the spirit of saints and patriots.”
Smith’s biographer Glen Jeansonne claimed in Gerald L.K. Smith: Minister of Hate that Gerald Smith simply lusted for power, and selling fear, hate and prejudice drew large crowds, and that was good for his business.
Smith and his wife, Elna, had lived in Louisiana where Mr. Smith worked for Gov. Huey P. Long, a left-wing populist Democrat who was also considered a fascist demagogue by some. After Long was assassinated in 1935, the Smiths moved to Georgia, Michigan, and finally Hollywood, where they made a living publishing religious chapbooks denouncing communism, liberalism, organized labor and Jews.
The couple had a dream of erecting a giant statue of Jesus, one that would put their stamp on the country. They traveled the state and determined that the seashore, desert, mountains and cities in California were just not the right fit for their vision.
They talked of Eureka Springs, a town they had visited several times, and in the early 1960s, they returned for good. They had $5,000 and a dream.
They bought and restored Penn Castle as their forever home and knew this was where they would put up the statue they envisioned.
Elna wrote that Eureka Springs was their choice of residence because the people were cordial and wholesome, the mountains were disorganized and thrilling, and “rose like giant hand-made muffins.” She defined Eureka Springs as a four-story town – Perkins Lumber was the first story, the library the next story up, followed by the Catholic Church on three, topped by the Crescent Hotel. She called the town “a beauty no architect could create.”
Mr. Smith notified the local press that he was going to finance a statue that he didn’t know who would build or how much it would cost, but he believed that if his plans were in print, he would be committed to see the project through.
And he did. He was encouraged to find South Dakota sculptor Emmet Sullivan, said to have worked on Mt. Rushmore. How would the Smiths find him? As miracles would have it, Sullivan was right here in Eureka Springs on vacation making a deal with Ola Farwell to create Dinosaur World on Hwy. 187 eight miles west of town.
The mid-sixties were politically turbulent in an America engulfed by war, civil rights demonstrations, prominent assassinations and arrival of the counterculture. Back-to-the-landers were attracted to unspoiled, affordable, remote land even though ways to make a living here were in short supply.
So, what we have here is a man with a questionable reputation living on donations, and young people who didn’t know each other both wanting a stake in a new life.
What happened then is another miracle. Smith needed labor and hippies needed jobs. Smith hired McKinley Weems, a local legend known for fixing everything and the oldest steam train engineer in the state.
McKinley knew how to think things through and who to hire to get the job done. The statue was constructed in just under two years, every inch of it built by hand with 24 layers of white mortar on a steel frame and weighing more than 2,000,000 pounds.
At the June 25, 1966, dedication of the statue, Claude Fuller, three-time Eureka Springs mayor, state legislator, 10-year Arkansas representative in the U.S. Congress, and President of the Bank of Eureka Springs for 38 years gave the opening address. Mr. Fuller was 90 years old and an eloquent and extemporaneous speaker. He was a personal friend of FDR, influential in getting Social Security passed and a powerhouse politician from 1906 to 1938. In his address, he talked of getting along with unlikely people in order to create something they could only do together.
Great Passion Play operations director Kent Butler told the Independent that at the end of Smith’s life, he had changed, and had said, “No one should have hate in him.”
On June 25, 2016, Claude Fuller’s grandson, John Fuller Cross, who was instrumental in providing financial backing and promotion for the Christ of the Ozarks statue and the Great Passion Play, gave the Golden Jubilee invocation, also extemporaneously.
The religious, political, or non-beliefs of these men, and of Elna Smith who held it together for her volatile husband, were cast aside as they presented a gift to Eureka Springs and the nation.
The Great Passion Play, the #1 attended outdoor drama in America, was built around the statue in 1968.
Since then, more than 8 million people have attended the play, proving that people with different attitudes, different dreams, and different needs could create the biggest single tourism draw in Eureka Springs since the water.