Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 189 pages of information about Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills.

Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 189 pages of information about Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills.

“Mr. Meek speaks of a large and interesting cave on Tavern Creek, in Miller County.  Dr. Shumard estimates a cave on Bryant’s Fork, in Ozark County, to be a mile and a half long.”

This description of Dr. Shumard’s is in the Geological Survey of Missouri, 1855-71, page 196, where he says: 

“The entrance is thirty-five feet wide and thirty feet high, and is situated at the foot of a perpendicular cliff, and far above the water-level of Bryant.  Just within the entrance it expands to sixty or seventy feet, with a height of about fifty feet; and this part of the cave has been used by the citizens of the county as a place for holding camp-meeting.  I estimated its length at not far short of one mile and a half.  The main passage is in general quite spacious, the roof elevated, and the floor tolerably level, but often wet and miry.  For some distance beyond the entrance there is not much to attract attention; but as we proceed, at the far extremity the chambers are quite as picturesque as the most noted of the well-known Mammoth Cave.  The ceilings, sides and floor are adorned with a multitude of stalactites and stalagmites arranged in fanciful combinations, and assuming a variety of fantastic and beautiful forms.”

Many of these caves contain niter, which occurs as a mineral and not as evidence of former animal occupation, it being found in the form of effervescenses on the walls.  Dr. Shumard mentions several of this character in Pulaski County, the most noted being Niter Cave, in the Third Magnesian Limestone, with a wide entrance thirty feet above the level of the Gasconade.  On page 201, he also gives a charming description of one of the immense springs that are numerous in this region and that I have never seen elsewhere.  He says: 

“Ozark County is bountifully supplied with springs of the finest water, and some of them of remarkably large size.  The largest one is situated near the North Fork, in T. 24, R. 11 W., Sec. 32, and is known under the name of the Double Spring.  It issues from near the base of a bluff of Sandstone and Magnesian Limestone, a few feet above the level of the North Fork.  This spring discharges an immense volume of water, which is divided by a huge mass of Sandstone into two streams, with swift currents flowing in opposite directions to join the North Fork about one hundred and fifty yards distant from the spring.  I estimated the width of these streams at not less than fifty yards.  They are separated from the North Fork by a pretty wooded island one hundred yards long.  The upper stream affords a good mill-site.  I am informed that the quantity of water discharged by this magnificent spring is not materially diminished during the dryest seasons of the year.  The temperature of the water measured at the edge of the spring, was found to be 56 deg.; the temperature of the air at the same time, 59 deg.  Other springs of considerable magnitude occur in various portions of the county, giving rise to beautiful and limpid streams.”

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Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.