"The Big Spring" EarthCache
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(not chosen)
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The Posted coordinates will carry you to the focal point of the
beginning of our great city. "The Big Spring" Huntsville was
founded around "The Big Spring" which is an inexhaustible source of
pure water flowing out from a huge rock cliff face. In history,
this natural spring was a marvel to both Indian and frontiersman
alike, and it is now home to the main central park in downtown
Huntsville called "Big Spring Park." John Hunt, from whom the name
Huntsville was first derived, made his way through the foothills of
the Smoky Mountains searching for a big spring of clear fresh water
he'd heard about through Indian tales, and was one of the first
settlers in the area and built a cabin right next to this big
spring in 1805. Other settlers soon followed him and in 1810, the
town that had sprung up became known as Twickingham after the
English home of the poet Alexander Pope. Anti-British sentiment was
so high in 1811 that the name was changed to honor the first
settler. It became known as Huntsville. This spring was the main
source of fresh water for Huntsville's citizens. For 30 years prior
to 1950, revenue from the sale of this spring water was the largest
single source of income for the city's general fund. Early history
of this spring has seen men such as Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson,
and Nathan Bedford Forrest, just to name a few. There is a
Huntsville historical marker at this site which reads, "A
park/picnic ground was developed around the Spring in 1898. Before
that and for many years afterward, great crowds attended religious
baptisms held below the small dam at the spring." Northern Alabama
sits on karst formations, a limestone rock with many springs
seeping out; Big Spring is one of these. A karst spring is often
called a resurgence as much of the water a karst spring receives is
drainage from all the sinkholes and sinking streams within its
groundwater basin, equivalent to a watershed on the surface. Once
beneath the surface, the groundwater is unevenly distributed
through the karst bedrock, the conduits carved in the surrounding
limestone, carry water from each point where water sinks join
together underground to form successively larger passages with
ever-increasing flow, which eventually discharges at a spring. This
"reservoir theory" accounts for the varying levels of spring flow,
which are related to rainfall, but not necessarily on an immediate
basis. Tom Aley, a well-known hydrologist, divides spring flow into
base flow and surge flow. Base flow is that which is more or less
constant, and is stored in deep levels, whereas surge flow is that
which more immediately related to local rainfall. The water from a
Karst springs generally is not subjected to as great a degree of
ground filtering as spring water which may have continuously passed
through soils or a porous aquifer. Karst springs are very
vulnerable to groundwater pollution, due to ease of water flow. To
make matters worse, the use of cave conduits as natural sewer
lines, and sinkholes as garbage dumps in small towns and rural
areas puts the local drinking water supplies at risk. It is only
recently that these problems are being addressed. For this reason
the care of the surrounding landscape is of high importance. (Karst
is a unique landscape formed by the underground erosion of rocks
such as limestone and marble that dissolve in water.) To get credit
for this cache you must do the following. 1. Take a photo of
yourself along with your GPS at the posted coordinates with the
Springs in the background. 2. Email me the estimated surface area
of the pool of water here at the spring. This cache was placed
after the nearby cache owner gave me the OK, after completing his
cache. I recommend you look for it also while in the area. It was a
fun cache and a great hide.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)