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June, 2003
Big
Spring
Country
As a teenager I took a ride with
a date up the Mount Manitou Incline west of Colorado Springs. The guide
assured us that the ride was completely safe, saying that even if
something should happen to the cable, "There are two giant
springs at the bottom to break our fall: Colorado Springs and Manitou
Springs." Actually, the springs for which the town of Manitou Springs is
named are quite modest in size and quite mineral in content, and
the springs for which Colorado Springs is named are, well, non-existent.
So recently, while driving to the East Coast, I saw the Big Spring
country of southern Missouri listed on my map so I thought I'd check it out.
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Missourians must feel some pressure at being
referred to as the "Show Me State." Certainly when they
named Big Spring, they knew people would want to be shown a BIG
SPRING. And that's just what you get: Big Spring puts out around
150 million gallons of water a day. All the water you see in the
foreground of this picture flows from the spring located below the
rocky area in the center of the picture.
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This picture was taken just
a few hundreds yards downstream from Big Spring, and already the
outflow has spread into a full-sized river. Because the water comes
from underground, though, it remains a very consistent temperature
year-round, allowing some lush aquatic life to grow.
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The plentiful supply of flowing water made
these giant springs quite useful to the early Missourians. Alley
Springs' 81 million gallons a day provided the energy for Alley
Mill, which processed grain from regional farmers. The mill,
now part of the Ozark National Scenic River complex, has been renovated
and the old grindstone is still working.
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One advantage to visiting the
spring country in the spring is the chance to see the spring
flowers. This small flower cluster, though a fairly common plant,
reveals its subtle design when photographed up close.
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This old plow probably created many a sore
back on mule and man in the days before tractors.
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Falling Spring didn't provide as much water
as some of the larger springs, but it had the distinct advantage
of emerging 20 feet or so above the lake, which made it more useful
for providing power. The sluice that once carried the water to the
covered wheel has long-since disintegrated except for its concrete
supports.
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The interior of the mill at
Falling Spring is still somewhat intact, including these large gears
that drove the leather belts of the grindstones and sawblades used
to cut timber into lumber.
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Blue Spring, too, is aptly named.
The deep azure color comes through even on a cloudy day. A wooden
platform to the left lets you look down into the very clear water
nearly 50 feet. Below that, the outlet curves into the underwater
cave system that carries the water down from the uplands.
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Ozark country, for all its natural
beauty, is not particularly prosperous. I couldn't tell if this one-room
log cabin was just for show or someone's home: there are curtains
in the upstairs window and the washtub hanging from the wall above
the porch is shiny and new, not a pretentious antique. In any case,
I found it near the town of Success, Missouri.
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Coming from the blue columbine country of
Colorado, I'm always a bit surprised to find other colors, like
this red one growing near Big Spring.
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Olie, my old Volvo, whole-heartedly concurred
that this roller-coaster road
in southern Missouri allows a person, or a car, to have about as much fun as
can be had legally while driving.
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