Morris the great

“Morris was a great cat,” Boyd Pyle told me in an interview last week. “He taught me everything I know.”

Boyd, a lifelong “railroad nut,” moved to Eureka Springs in 1981 to help lay tracks and drive steam locomotives for the newly opened Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway.

Later, he became a bellhop and then bell captain at the Crescent Hotel. For more than two decades, Boyd’s friendly face and unmistakeable passion for the historic building made guests’ stays feel special.

He used that “He taught me everything I know” line on all of them.

Just about anyone who has been to Eureka Springs has heard of Morris, the beloved orange tabby who had his run of the hotel from 1973 until his death in 1994.

I wanted to talk with Boyd because he was one of the Crescent employees closest to Morris, the only feline to have his own chapter in my upcoming book, Welcome to Eureka Springs: The I-Sh*t You Not History of America’s Quirkiest Town.

Boyd’s anecdotes helped me put the finishing touches on that one.

It’s kind of nice to be able to write a chapter involving the Crescent Hotel without a ghost story of some sort.

Just kidding. There’s always a ghost.

I plan to read my chapter about Morris at this month’s Poetluck. Everyone is welcome to come enjoy good food, good company, and good stories on Thursday, September 19, at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs. The featured reader will be award-winning local artist, author, and storyteller Zeek Taylor.