The hillside above U.S. Highway 65 near I-40 at Conway, he said, may take decades to come down. But sooner or later, some of it will come down. Eureka Springs has also seen its share of slides. But Sutherland says Eureka has done a good many things right. Many of the town's most prominent structures were built onto the side of the hills, rather than into them, he said.
Buildings require a level surface - there's just no way around that.
And in Arkansas that can be a problem, he said. But terracing, using support columns and employing other techniques often do the job better without wounding the landscape, Sutherland said. Practical people often shrug off such suggestions as too complicated and expensive. A kind of lust is at work too. I used to cut firewood each fall with two friends in the woods of an agreeable landowner.