Missouri Springs: Power, Purity and Promise By Loring Bullard © Watershed Press Design by: Kelly Guenther Missouri Springs: Power, Purity and Promise By: Loring Bullard Introduction It is a bragging right that may be as old as This property of springs—their sudden land ownership itself. “I have a spring on my and hitherto unexplainable appearance— place that never runs dry.” The intimation is adds to their mysterious aura. Among that of all the springs around, there is some- our ancestors, speculation about spring thing unique—something special—about my origins formed a rather sizeable body of spring. Landowners have perhaps always folklore. While scientists can now explain viewed springs differently than nearby creeks. most of these formerly mystifying Unlike a creek that arises surreptitiously on the properties, the allure of springs remains. property of others before passing through their People will probably always be land, a spring begins on their property. They intrigued—even mesmerized—by springs. can say that they own it. From an unseen, un- The human attraction to springs is obvious source, it literally springs, full blown, extremely durable. Springs guided the from the depths of the earth. A spring can truly habitation patterns and movements of be the source of a creek. Native Americans, just as they did the Marker at Liberty, Missouri (Photo by Author) Missouri Springs: Power, Purity and Promise 3 Introduction An Ozark Spring (Courtesy Western Historical Manuscript Collection) later arriving settlers. Indian villages and hunting public water supplies. After all, these camps were usually located near perennial fortuitous emanations from the earth springs. One can easily imagine native children were considered the purest and most squealing in delight with a summertime plunge, healthful of waters available. just as our own kids would today. Later, European Our attraction to springs cannot be newcomers followed the Indian’s lead, building accounted for solely by their reliable their cabins near springs, their water supplies and production of cool water. There is refrigerators. more to it than that. Maybe springs With increasing settlement, business interests resonate with us as benevolent or even eagerly sought perennially flowing springs, virtuous manifestations of nature— particularly to power mills. Unlike streams, representing new beginnings, springs provided fairly constant flows that in the fountains of hope, promises kept. wintertime were free of machinery-obstructing ice. They are given to us freely as gifts of For decades, springs faithfully turned water what we call good land, demanding wheels or spun metal turbines to grind grain or nothing in return. We find comfort in saw wood. They also supplied feed water for the fact that they will be there commercial enterprises like tomato canneries, tomorrow, and the day after that. Day hide tanneries, and distilleries. Thus, springs in and day out, for generations, they became the nuclei of a variety of thriving have satisfied our basic needs, while at industries, driving the nascent machinery of our the same time refreshing and, at prosperity. times, inspiring us. Even as our direct It was only natural for people to congregate dependence upon them has waned, near these hydro-industrial centers. Many they continue to evoke in us nostalgia settlements grew around mills and springs, as of simpler, more leisurely times— evidenced by the fact that over sixty-five towns in swimming in spring-fed creeks and Missouri contain the word spring in their names. ponds, in numbingly cold water that Some towns depended on springs for their first needled the skin; or picknicking in the Missouri Springs: Power, Purity and Promise 4 Springs at Work A Spring-fed Stream (Photo by Author) cool shade of a lush spring glen, escaping the turning a wheel or turbine, for example. summer heat, feasting on watermelon and Historically, the value of a given spring homemade ice cream. was largely tied to its capacity to do work. This booklet is in no way meant to diminish Entrepreneurial zeal led people to assume our sense of wonder or curiosity about springs. that the work potential of a spring was its Instead, our intended purpose is to answer single most important attribute. Scenic some questions commonly asked about them: and ecological values tended to be ignored Why is this spring here? Where does the water or pushed aside. come from? Why is it so cool? Why are some This fact forever changed the Missouri springs so blue? You will also learn how our landscape, because springs became ill-conceived or uncaring manipulations on the magnets for development. Flows were land can sometimes have disastrous captured and re-directed, outlets consequences for springs—the very objects of modified, openings blasted or excavated. our affection. Hopefully, a deeper understand- Wood or rock or concrete dams and ing of the workings of springs will helps us to flumes and diversions intercepted spring more fully honor, preserve and protect these branches or crisscrossed their valleys. priceless natural assets. That would be our Sturdy mills were built on nearby rocky greatest gift to those who follow us to their prominences. People began to see everlasting waters. undeveloped springs as underutilized resources: “All that water, just going to Springs at Work waste!” was a battle cry for the industrious to get into gear and build The simple fact that springs flow has for something of practical use to society. centuries stirred the minds of men—set brain There is nothing inherently wrong with turbines to spinning. When the physical aspect this, of course. People simply saw springs of elevation is added, springs not only can as useful natural amenities—like good flow, they can tumble, cascade or even thunder timber or productive soil—agents downward, down to the level of rivers and provided for mankind to put to work for streams. Flow rates and elevation or “heads” of his own benefit. Beneficial uses changed fall are key factors in putting springs to work— and evolved over time. Springs that once Missouri Springs: Power, Purity and Promise 5 Springs at Work Kimberland Mill at Silver Lake Spring, Stone County (Courtesy History Museum for Spring- field and Greene County) served grist mills or sawmills were refitted for cable rolling over iron pulleys. After ten more modern applications like the generation of minutes of dodging boulders and electricity or raising of fish. Almost every large skidding down steep inclines, he arrived spring in Missouri, at some point in time, was at at the bottom of the valley and the end least considered for some type of development of the trail. He stopped and stood, project. It was not until large numbers of them staring, at the amazing boil of had been harnessed, throttled, diverted or greenish-blue water at his feet. otherwise exploited that we began to see them in a Churning vigorously from the stream different light. The story of our evolving bed, the spring looked even more relationship with springs, and our changing spectacular than he had remembered it. attitudes about them, can be exemplified by the A few hundred feet downstream a dam, tale of one spring, Missouri’s second largest. The now mossy and green, had been thrown year is 1905; the location, south-central Missouri. across the channel, forming a shallow pond. A slot in the dam allowed water to * * * sluice through a turbine. Shepard could Edward Shepard’s mind remained clear, his see the horizontal iron shaft spinning body relatively strong, in spite of his late middle and its grooved wheel, loudly rotating, age. He sported thick woolen breeches, tucked which held the moving cable. This into his lace-up boots, as protection against thorns transmitted the power of flowing water and brambles and even snakebite, although that up to the mill, a few hundred vertical was unlikely at this time of year. He wore round, feet higher and almost a quarter of a wire-rimmed spectacles. A neatly trimmed gray mile distant. moustache protruded below the shade of his Shepard knew that Samuel Greer wide-brimmed hat. He was wiry and trim and in bought this property near the Eleven spite of his fifty-two years of life, could still Point River in the late 1850s and had negotiate the rocky trails and terrain of the constructed the first mill here, near the Missouri Ozarks. spring, before the Civil War. But that He skirted the loudly banging grist mill and mill had burned about twenty-five years began hiking down the steep switch-back trail ago—an unfortunate event, but one behind it. The sky arched an intense blue, which provided the Greer family an cloudless and cool, over oaks and hickories just opportunity to solve a serious access now flush with tiny mint green leaves. Shepard problem. The rutted road from the ridge kept his head down, his eyes on the trail ahead. top down to the mill was treacherously Above him he heard constant chirping from a steel steep, making it difficult for loaded Missouri Springs: Power, Purity and Promise 6 Springs at Work wagons to negotiate. So when he began working pockmarks he had seen in the bedrock on a new mill in 1883, Greer’s son decided to above. He pulled a small field book from build it on the ridge above the spring and use the his pocket and recorded his power of flowing water, far below, to drive it. observations and drew lines on a hand After admiring the boil for a few more drawn topographic map. minutes, Shepard turned upstream and hiked a Later, Shepard would use these notes few hundred yards to the upper outlet of the for a report he would send to potential spring, gushing from a cave in a moss and investors in St.