Arkansas Photos for Rock Hounds ~ Folk Art House ~ Quigleys Castle

Rock collector



I have been collecting rocks for many years and often come home from vacations with one or more special ones that have a way of working themselves into our backyard landscape. I even wrote one of my early hubs titled I have Rocks in My Head, OOPS!, I mean Bed! This is just to say that I appreciate the beauty and shapes of rocks and have grown more interested as I get older in the origin and composition of rocks.

But my collection pales in comparison to that of Mrs. Quigley! This lady also had an early love of rocks, fossils, shells and other things created by Mother Nature.

She took it to an all time high when she (along with the help of her family) constructed what can only be described as a folk art house near the northwestern part of Arkansas just four miles south of Eureka Springs.

The year was 1995 when my mother and I spent some time vacationing in Arkansas. Spending an extra day in Eureka Springs on our return trip from Branson, Missouri where we had seen and enjoyed some terrific shows we decided to visit Quigley's Castle.

(c) Peggy Woods - All Rights Reserved

Off the beaten track

Sometimes visiting sites that are a bit out of the ordinary can be fun and often add enjoyment that is long remembered when vacationing. Also, the people who build these more unusual attractions off the beaten track are interesting and there are stories revolving around these creations.

A site with some similar building materials that we saw while traveling in the State of Wisconsin was the Dickeyville Grotto where a dedicated and much beloved priest labored over his creation for years.

In Houston, Texas when we have had out of town visitors, we have always taken them to the famed folk art Beer Can House. Sometimes after driving our house guests all around our fair city, the only photos they took back home were of this unique site. There were always smiles of amazement and discussions about the creator of this house.

So when my mother and I read about Quigley's Castle we decided to see what the hype was all about. One of the brochures labeled this as "The Ozark's Strangest Dwelling."

Rock construction

There is an old saying...something to the effect...One man's home is another man's castle.

We met the granddaughter of Mrs. Elise Quigley who along with her little daughter Gabby (great-granddaughter of Mrs. Quigley) was there the day we stopped to see the Quigley Castle and they both showed us around the inside and outside of the two story structure that was built by hand and followed the unique design that came from Mrs. Quigley's love of natural things that were a part of her continuing collections.

The story goes that Mrs. Quigley actually demolished the house ( with the help of her children ) that she and her family were living in to effectively spur on the building of the home of her dreams. Thus, when Mr. Quigley came home one day from work he had little option but to start working towards the new home's completion. What a spunky gal Mrs. Quigley must have been!

Temporarily until the new dwelling was built, the family lived in what was a chicken house on the site of their farm-site.

It reportedly took three years of time and I can only imagine the great effort expended to use her assortment of rocks and plaster the outside of their "castle" with her colorful collection.

But it did not stop there!

Plants and Butterflies

Mrs. Quigley designed her house with areas of dirt left between the edges of the flooring and 3 of the 4 walls of her home with large windows so that plants could be grown inside of her house.

Most people I know settle for a few potted plants. Not Mrs. Quigley!

Some of the interior plants that we viewed were thriving in this environment reaching all the way up to the second story of the home!

This can quite easily be seen with the photos that I took of an upstairs bedroom.

In that same bedroom were walls decorated with an abundance of butterflies. Butterfly photos as well as real ones were featured on the walls as well as a combination of other things in her collection.

Butterfly collection

All I can guess is that Mrs. Quigley must have had all of her children looking for and capturing butterflies as her collection was vast and displayed in many different areas of the house and in various ways.

Note the cannisters that she made using butterflies and shells which were another one of her favored things to collect and display.

Shell Collections

Displayed throughout Quigley's Castle, both inside and outside of the home are inventive ways that Mrs. Quigley worked her vast shell collection into the decor.

From covering a birdcage to using them over a door jam of an upstairs bedroom or integrating them with her outdoor sculptures with the rocks...that and in many other inventive ways her shells are incorporated into the design and decoration of the place.

I have also collected shells off of beaches in Florida and have made some shell wreaths...but again...nothing that compares with Mrs. Quigley's use of seashells!

Arrowheads

Is it any surprise that Mrs. Quigley also had an arrowhead collection? It was no surprise to me!

Arrowheads can be found almost everywhere on earth especially when times were more primitive. When hunting for food, sharpened sticks, stones and other objects helped man bring down his prey.

Often these sharpened tools were fashioned of stone and attached to sticks. Native Indians used bows and arrows long before guns and gunpowder were introduced to them from foreign settlers to this land.

My dad actually found some arrowheads around where I grew up in Wisconsin. I have no idea what happened to them. They were probably given to others in one of my parent's moves.

In Mrs. Quigley's case, her arrowhead collection is safely displayed in frames under glass for all to admire.

Bottle trees

Apparently bottle trees have been utilized in various places of the world and for a much longer time than I knew. There is an interesting link regarding them to the right if you are interested in learning more.

I have a cousin in Illinois who uses colorful bottles and bits of glass in his outdoor landscape and some of them are hung from tree branches to artistic effect.

My husband and I have seen bottle trees at Windy Winery on the Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail.

Mrs. Quigley was obviously familiar with bottle trees and incorporated them into her outdoor landscape.

Marble collection

My brothers and I used to play with marbles when we were children. I still remember the beauty of them and like the arrowheads that somehow disappeared along the way, the marbles with which we played are long gone.

Not so with the ones that Mrs. Quigley's children played with!

They have been plastered into place and now embellish tables and other things that can be seen at Quigley's Castle.

By now you must have come to the realization that Mrs. Quigley was an avid collector of many different things. In addition to the items already mentioned...the rocks, arrowheads, shells, glass bottles and marbles...she collected petrified wood, fossils, driftwood and anything having to do with her interest in natural things derived from the earth.

Antiques were also an interest and some of the photos I took inside of the house show a few of them.

Even goldfish are to be found in a tank constructed inside of the house!

Plants of all types are grown both inside of the house as well as in the gardens outside.

Everywhere one looks there are things of special meaning incorporated into the design of Mrs. Quigley's "Castle."

Tour guide

We perhaps had the littlest tour guide ever in the form of Mrs. Quigley's great granddaughter, Gabby. Her mother told us that her big sister was in school that day and she was looking for things to do to stay occupied. So when my mother and I toured the gardens outside, even amidst some heavy mist / light drizzle, Gabby walked with us. She sure was a little cutie pie!

Folk Art House lovers, rock hounds, seashell lovers, plant lovers and those interested in the unique and unusual should find visiting Quigley's Castle to their liking. Hope you enjoyed these photos of this Arkansas attraction.