I’ve looked in and around Grotto Spring dozens of times, but today as I spluttered along Spring Street having left the Eureka Springs Post Office, I pulled the jalopy over and hopped out.

You may not know this and I often forget, but Eureka Springs, Arkansas is a pretty little place.

As many times as I’ve been here, I don’t remember that face above the little bench. I wonder who it is? Deity? Local barkeep?

This looks like it always did. Stairs into a little cave. A nice place to cool off on a hot July day. Of course, it’s the middle of winter.

This looks the same, too. Except what’s that ahead at the back of the cave? Perhaps I have just forgotten it.

A closer look shows it’s probably part of a local system of magic. Not sure how it works but there’s several items around the Virgin of Guadalupe: coins, Wrigley chewing gum, a .45 round.