Omaha daily bee., 1906-08-26
GREAT LAKE UNDER EARTH
Tunnel Course Under
Big Mountain.

Month after month papers and magazines
publish glowing accounts of tho beauty and
grandeur of the lakes of Switzerland, the
rivers of Germany or the glaciers of Green
! land. Tourists and globe trotters have
stood on the Alps, ''gondolated" in Venice
or climbed the Matterhorn, but how many
American tourists know anything Of the
wonders of their native land outside the
old schoolbook wonders of Niagara, Yellow
stone and Yosemite?
In Oregon county. Missouri, and Fulton
county, Arkansas, are grouped Grand gulf
Mammoth spring and. Spring river, natural
curiosites so wonderful, so beautiful and
furnishing so many openings for investors
that were they hid in the forests of Africa
or within the shadow OF the mountain
peaks OF southern Europe artists would
haunt them with their sketch books and
poets would rave of the soul-inspiring
beauty.
| The Grand gulf Is the browning wonder
OF the group. Two shallow streams about
one-fourth Of a mile distant from eacn
other flowing In the same direction over an
elevated plateau suddenly drop into can
yons 500 feet deep.
These two canyons form a junction hall
a mile below, where they strike mountain
lying directly across their path. This noun
tain has been tunneled by the action Of the
water and the natural bridge thus formed
Is no less a curiosity and almost equal in
size to the famous natural bridge OF Vir-
ginia. After passing through this noun
| tain the united stream strikes another
mountain and tunnels Il for several hun
dred feet and then spreads out into an i'm
mense underground lake, the area of which
has never been ascertalned Many parties
| have entered the tunnel and pionics have
been held by torchlight on the margin OF
the lake, but still II remains a mystery
No light can exist long over the bosom OF
the lake and nothing can be heard save the
PARKWAY rumble OF the waters as they
| rush on.
| This underground lake is the reservoir
which supplies Mammoth spring the larg-
est spring in the world. with its $1,000 cubic
| feet OF water a minute. The most sur
prising feature in connection with this ex-
treordinary natural curiosity is the fact
| that when these great canyons are filled
with water. even to the arch of the natural
bridge, hundreds Of feet deep, the volume
of water in Mammoth spring is not in
| creased.
Mammoth spring covers eighteen acres OF
ground 200 feet deep with crystal water
gated by naphtha launches and flowing IFS
6O,oOo cubic feet OF water a minute over q
dam of solid masonry 10 feet long and
twenty feet high, It presents an ad-
mirable picture
1t Is too beautiful for an attempt at de-
scription and the spring alone supplies
water power equal to thousands Of horse
power. II seems TO hold its own more So
rene than the pyramids and as unchange-
able as the DEGREES of fate. Nothing AFFECTS
1t. Its purity remains undimmed wher
showers OF spring transform mountain
streams into veritable sewers; cloudburst.
that drown wide valleys and drouths thai
drive cattle to the distant lowlands neatheI
add TO nor take from its constant, never,
varying flow, and the kecnest blast Of old
winter that ever scaled the Ozarks ant
rushed as a conqueror down these sunny
slopes has never yet been able to captur,
and imprison in its icy letters a singl,
wavelet on the placid bosom OF this might,
spring.-southwest Magazine.