History of Mountian
Spring
Long ago before DeSoto came to Arkansas the spring was used by
the native Indians. Then soon discovered by trappers who used the
spring as a watering source for them and their horses, soon after
the trapper the Pioneers came in covered wagons using the Buffalo
and Indian trails which were usually big enough for only one wagon.
Most of the pioneers that came here on the Butterfield-Overland
trail that came to rest near the spring settled and later called
the village (Mountain Spring). Mid to late 1800’s the spring was
the center of attraction for a village that turned into a town and
was soon named after it. The town had no roads, only trails. Mt
Spring was lucky enough to have two major trails running through
it, the Butterfield-Overland trail which ran east to west and the
Batesville trail that travel southwest to Little Rock and northeast
to Batesville. Few miles North of Mt. Spring was another major
trail called the Buffalo Trail, today it’s called Lewisburg road.
It’s said by locals that Andrew Jackson, the seventeenth President
of the United States mapped the Batesville Trail that ran through
the community of Mt. Springs. He was president from 1829-1837.
Middle of the 1850’s people came from far and near to camp and
drink the water of the spring. The water was believed to cure the
following: Malaria, Stomach problems or whatever ailed you. The
spring is noted as a “chalybeate” spring, which simply means it
contains minerals such as iron and sulphur.
Towards the end of the Civil War people began to buy and homestead
the land, soon the town of Mt. Spring began to grow and now had two
general stores which supplied the town with flour, sugar, coffee,
meal, etc. Meal was made from the white corn grown by nearby
farmers and present times its called corn meal. Soon a very
influential man named Mr. John Magness decided that the community
of Mt. Springs needed a school and in honor of Mr. Magness the men
who built the school names it Magness Academy. The creek that runs
through the area was also named Magness creek because Mr. Magness
settled nearby.
During the great depression in 1930 the government put a canning
kitchen below the spring. They allowed four families to can per day
and they had to hand carried the water from the spring to use for
canning. The first known settler to own the spring was a Mr. John
Richards who purchased the land March 1, 1821.
Today the area of Mt. Spring is listed as part of Cabot and not to
many even know the spring exists. I hope after finding this
EarthCache everybody will learn how the area got its start and how
the area of Magness Creek got its name.
I would like to thank Pam Perez (idratherbecaching) for providing
me with the book written by her grandma Lizzie Guess titled (The
legend of Mt. Springs).
Formation
A spring may be the result of karst topography. Where surface water
has infiltrated the earth's surface (recharge area), becoming part
of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels though a
network of cracks and fissures, openings ranging from intergranular
spaces to large caves. The water eventually emerges from below the
surface, in the form of a spring. Mountian Spring is a Seepage or
filtration spring. The term seep refers to springs with small flow
rates in which the source water has filtered into permeable earth.
Classification
Springs are often classified by the volume of the water they
discharge. The largest springs are called "first-magnitude,"
defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800
Liters or 100 cubic feet (2.8 m3) of water per second. The scale
for spring flow is as follows: Magnitude Flow (ft³/s, gal/min,
pint/min) Flow (L/s)
1st Magnitude > 100 ft³/s 2800 L/s
2nd Magnitude 10 to 100 ft³/s 280 to 2800 L/s
3rd Magnitude 1 to 10 ft³/s 28 to 280 L/s
4th Magnitude 100 US gal/min to 1 ft³/s (448 US gal/min) 6.3 to
28 L/s
5th Magnitude 10 to 100 gal/min 0.63 to 6.3L/s
6th Magnitude 1 to 10 gal/min 63 to 630 mL/s
7th Magnitude 1 pint to 1 gal/min 8 to 63 mL/s
8th Magnitude Less than 1 pint/min 8 mL/s
0 Magnitude no flow (sites of past/historic flow
To log and get credit for this cache you must complete the
following questions and email myself the answers.
1. What is the estimated width of the spring?
2. What is your current elevation?
3. Using the chart above what classification is Mt. Spring?
4. Take a picture of yourself or group sitting beside the spring
with your GPSr and post a log of what you liked the most about Mt.
Spring.
