Last Sunday, Connie, my father and I drove from Jonesboro up into the Arkansas Ozarks to Mammoth Spring State Park. Mammoth Spring is located a hundred yards or so south of the Arkansas/Missouri line and is aptly named, with a flow of 9 million gallons an hour. It is the source of Spring River that flows south deeper into Arkansas. The bone-chilling water provides a great trout fishery. I've been fishing up there with my family since I was about four years old.
We were lucky enough to see a fairly large flock of wood ducks paddling around in the spring, a species I don't see much in Colorado. I got a picture of what Connie referred to as a "flotilla of drakes."
Also quite a few mothers and ducklings.
Several hundred yards downstream from the spring, a dam of cut local stone was built in the 1880s. It was originally used to power mills, but hydroelectric generators were installed here in the 1920s. It was used for hydroelectric power into the 1990s.
4 comments:
Neat place --go there several times ayear. Good friend has a condo on the South Fork of the Spring River which is South of there. Good Small mouth bass fishing too surrounded by high bluffs on both sides. The feeder creeks have water cress certain times of thee year. Had an English girl friend I took up there telling her it was like the Cotswolds. Her reply was "Codswollop", but we had a good time anyway. Very quiet, never changing area of America. I have been visiting there since the 1950's when I went to Boy Scout camp at Cedar Valley Camp--sadly defunct. Too many retired Yankees, but they seem to be dieing of and not being replaced by weekenders from Jonesboro and Memphis.
"Had an English girl friend I took up there telling her it was like the Cotswold's. Her reply was "Codswollop", but we had a good time anyway."
Must of been one of those "English good time girls" of repute.....
Sounds fun - all those years ago, I have many similar memories !
JohnnyUK
I went to Boy Scout camp at Kia Kima in the area.
I'd go more often if I lived closer
Old Kia Kima has been restored. I go there with the friend who owns the condo and who was a Kia Kima counselor in the late 50's early 60's. Several of my Memphis friends attended or worked at the camp. The restoration left the initials campers carved in the cabin rafters with pocket knives. Pretty cool.
Johhny UK, one great change in the nearby town of Hardy Arkansas is an English restaurant. Local girl to work on a cruise ship and met Yorkshire lad. They returned to open main st cafe where full English is available 7 days a week. Real bacon, bangers, black pudding, fried bread, etc. The challenge was a source for the bacon and bangers. Also, curries, bubble and squeek, bangers and mash.Roast beef and yorkshire pudding on Sunday. Not the usual Ozark menu. I cannot find Bangers or real English bacon in Memphis. I do not know how they do it. Got to . Mouth watering on the keyboard.
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