In 1820, Caleb Lindsey started what has been documented as the first school in Arkansas. “School Cave” was in the rock walls of the canyon of Hall’s Creek, which runs through Ravenden Springs. The cave continued to be used as a school for most of the nineteenth century. Other attractions in Hall’s Creek Canyon soon became popular with visitors as well. Over eons, the creek carved a canyon with solid stone walls approximately 200 feet high. Waterfalls existed all along the creek with excellent swimming holes below them that furnished summer-long recreation for visitors. Other features were the School Cave and the much larger Elephant Cave at the bottom of a high stone bluff. Near the Elephant Cave, high up on the canyon wall, was the Raven’s Den. The den, a shallow cave, was observed to be the nesting place of Corvus corax, the common raven, in the 1820s. The ravens were never seen there again after 1861, but their nesting spot gave its name to the area and the town.