I often forget that I live so close to Arkansas and that just over the state line is the lovely town of Mammoth Spring with an impressive spring and wonderful park for walking and seeing a bit of history. Just an hour’s drive brings me to Mammoth Spring State Park.
The water flowing through the spring is estimated to be at 9 million gallons per hour. It’s pretty powerful walking over the dam from the visitor center to the old power company, just on the opposite side. In between the spring and the dam, all of that water that is temporarily harnessed, produced a 10 acre lake with a beautiful, paved walking path.
After first traversing the dam, there is the option for a self guided tour of the power plant turned museum. Past the museum and down a hill, the outflow joins the Warm Fork Spring River. While it was too cold to swim in March, there is a tiny, riverside beach and picnic tables.
We walked through the park and back up to the path that ran alongside the railroad tracks. We witnessed a train passing quite close to the fence. Click here and turn up the volume for the full, rushing train experience.
On a previous visit, I had seen the Depot Museum from a distance. This time, I entered the caboose next to the depot with a few excited children and got to climb up into a high seat with windows, called a cupola. I imagined the rocking and swaying of the caboose, chugging down the tracks.
Back on the path, I saw a variety of ducks and geese on the water (click here) and red flowers on a shrub beginning to bloom along with the white blossoms filling out a pear tree.
At the springhead there is a station set up by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Click here to see the live data tracking the spring flow amount, height and air temperature. It’s a nifty tool for gaining access to an incredible amount of live data on water around the country.
I stopped in at the visitor center. It had a sizable gift shop and friendly park employees on hand to answer questions. The bathroom in this center is not only clean, but is a bit stunning in its décor for a public loo.
A drive around town before we headed back to the Missouri side demonstrated the stark contrast of those steep Arkansas hills that did not put off the builders. We saw a variety of homes in old and new construction that sat atop or on the side of steep, steep hills. Down and out of town we went, back home.
In a previous post, I wrote more about the little town of Mammoth and the history of the Arkansas Missouri Power Company Museum. Click here to check it out the last visit during summertime.