THE GRAND GULF.
Oregon County, Missouri, is also fortunate in having within its limits
the Grand Gulf, which has been declared by competent judges to be one of
the wonders of the world; and it offers a combination of attractions
that certainly entitles it to an important place among a limited few of
America's choicest scenes.
The Gulf is nearly nine miles northwest of Thayer, Missouri, and about
equally distant from Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, just a little south of
the Missouri state line. The drive is a pleasant one, as the road winds
among the forest-clad hills and passes occasional fields of cotton and
corn; but having been macadamized in very ancient times by the original
and all-powerful general government of that early period is somewhat
rough, yet threatens no danger greater than the destruction of wheels.
The only approach to the Gulf is over the hill-tops; and the entrance in
past times, while it was still a cave, must have been a sink-hole in the
roof of the largest chamber. This chamber is now the upper end of the
Grand Gulf, and into it we descended by a rugged path, sufficiently
difficult to maintain expectations of grandeur that are not doomed to
disappointment. The precipitous walls, two hundred feet in height, bear
a faithful record of the energy of circling floods; but instead of
frowning, as some good people persistently accuse all noble heights of
doing, they seem to look with conscious pride towards the windings of
the great rough chasm, where every available spot has been seized on as
a homestead for some form of vegetation. All the great, dark rock masses
that interfere with easy progress along the lowest depth, were
surrounded by a feathery setting of blooming white agaratum; and each
turn in the winding course reveals new charms of rock and verdure with
their varying lights and shadows until the crowning glory is reached at
the Natural Bridge, about twelve hundred feet from the upper end of the
cañon. This bridge is magnificent. It was impossible to secure
photographs because the abrupt curve by which it is approached gave no
point of view for a small camera; and it was equally impossible to reach
desirable points for taking measurements, but the open arch is not less
than twenty feet wide and considerably more than that in height. From
the floor or bed of the Gulf to the road that crosses the bridge is more
than two hundred feet. The passage under the bridge makes a curve, the
shortest side of which measures exactly two hundred and nineteen feet,
and as the width varies from twenty to forty feet, the other side is
longer. Most of the floor is flat and level as also is the ceiling, the
greatest irregularities being along the wall of greater length which
shows at what points the rushing water has spent its force. No water
flows through here now except in times of heavy rainfall. The other end
of the bridge has a somewhat smaller span but is very handsome, and the
outward views from both are exceedingly fine. After traversing about
four hundred feet more of the beautiful, high-walled Gulf, we stood
before the grand entrance to the cave, which is strikingly similar to
the first arch of the bridge. The only picture I was able to get was
taken from the slope of the Bridge-crown, one hundred feet below the
road, and merely gives a suggestion of the magnificence waiting
peacefully for the crowds of eager and enthusiastic sight-seers who will
in the near future rush to this charming region in the "Land of the Big
Red Apple."
My companions were the same as mentioned in the preceding chapter, a
nephew, James Arther Owen, and an obliging, tall young man of twenty,
who acted as guide and driver.
Relieving ourselves of all superfluous burdens just within the cave
entrance, we lighted candles and sat down to wait for our eyes to
adjust themselves to the changed condition, from brilliant sunlight to
absolute darkness, broken only by the feeble strength of three candles.
It was noticeable that in the moist atmosphere of the Missouri caves,
three candles were not more than equal to one in the dry caves of South
Dakota.
Very soon we were able to continue the inspection of our surroundings,
and the large passage we were in would more properly be called a long
chamber, of irregular width but averaging about thirty feet. This ends
abruptly nearly five hundred feet from the entrance, but a small passage
scarcely more than six feet high runs off at right angles, and into this
we turn. It is not quite so nearly dry as the outer chamber, and at a
distance of less than one hundred feet we suddenly come to the end of
dry land at an elbow of the silently flowing river whose channel we had
almost stepped into. The ceiling dipped so we were not able to stand
straight, and the guide said he had never gone farther; but to his
surprise here was a light boat which I am ready to admit he displayed no
eagerness to appropriate to his own use, and swimming about it, close to
shore, were numerous small, eyeless fish, pure white and perfectly
fearless; the first I had ever seen, and little beauties.
By burning magnesium ribbon we saw that the passage before us was a low
arch and occupied from wall to wall by water, the direction of the flow
being into another of somewhat greater size at right angles to that by
which we had come, and at the mouth of this lay the boat. The distance
we could see in either direction was of tantalizing shortness, and the
boat was provided with no means of guidance or control, save an
abundance of slender twine which secured it to a log of drift from the
outside; so I decided to leave my companions in charge of the main coil
of twine while I went on an excursion alone, there being not much
evident cause for apprehension as no living cow could ever have made the
trip to this favored spot.
Although the water looked perfectly placid, the boat drifted with
surprising speed, so that the two scared faces peering after me were
soon lost sight of. The channel was nowhere more than six feet wide,
consequently as the boat inclined to drive against either wall I was
able with care to keep it off the rocks with my hands, and in the same
way guide it around the sharp turns in safety. After several of these
turns there appeared the mouth of a passage so much smaller that the
roof was only twelve inches above the sides of the boat and I could
touch both walls at the same time. By running the boat across this it
was held in place by the current, and I could sit at ease and enjoy the
position, which even the least imaginative person can readily conceive
to have been a novel one.
The small eyeless fish had been noticeable in the water everywhere but
now came swimming about the boat in an astonishing multitude, and as
unconscious of any possible danger as bees in a flower garden. Having no
eyes, they were naturally undisturbed by the light, so the candle could
be held close to the water for a satisfactory examination of the happy
creatures.
They bore a striking resemblance to minnows, although a few were larger,
and it is claimed that four or five inches are sizes not unusual, but
they happened not to be on exhibition. Even dipping a hand into the
water in their midst occasioned no alarm, and they might have been
caught by dozens.
The guide now loudly called that he had fears of the twine being cut on
the sharp edges of rock, and that cutting off all possibility of the
boat's return, which being sufficiently reasonable, explorations were
indefinitely suspended, and a landing soon made. The camera and
flash-light were then prepared for taking a view, and a point of light
being needed to work by the nephew was asked to sit in the boat with his
candle, to which he readily consented; but judging from the developed
picture it may be doubted if his pleasure at the time was extremely
keen.
On leaving the cave the guide said it would not be necessary to return
to the upper end of the Gulf in order to reach the surface, as the
ascent could be made in another place; and leading the way to the left
of the entrance he started up the nearly perpendicular wall, more than
two hundred feet high, by a sort of "blind trail" that would have caused
a mountain sheep to sigh for wings, but it was very beautiful.
We walked over to the wagon road on the high ridge above the middle of
the bridge and going down the forest-clad slopes to the perpendicular
wall in which is the smaller of the great arches, admired from this fair
point of view the marvelous grandeur of one of the greatest natural
wonders.
The weather being perfect after a rain the day before, there was no need
of haste to get indoors, so we lingered into the afternoon and then
drove to the Mammoth Spring, in Arkansas, a short distance south of the
Missouri state line, where the Cave River, just visited, comes to the
surface in a bounding spring of great force. The distance being little
less than nine miles.
The basin filled by the Spring might be called a lake, as its size of
two hundred by three hundred feet gives it that appearance, and the
color is a remarkable deep blue. The volume of water is so nearly
uniform that the height seldom varies more than two or three inches,
but three years ago a storm of unusual violence carried out most of the
native fish, and in restocking from Government supplies, the clear, cold
water suggested an experiment with mountain trout which are found to be
doing well.
Where Mammoth Spring flows out its power is utilized by a flour mill on
one bank and a cotton mill on the other, and the water flowing on forms
Spring River, well known for the charm of its beautiful scenery.
This Spring is described by Dr. David Dale Owen in his First Report of a
Geological Reconnoissance of the northern counties of Arkansas, 1857 and
1858, pp. 60-61.