Cave Spring, Shannon County, 172.55 acres

Description. Cave Spring is situated along the Current River in Shannon County, a couple miles below Akers Ferry. With a spectacular river entrance at the base of the bluff, the nearly vertical natural entrance well emerges in a small, air-filled room just inside the mouth of the cave and empties an estimated 32 million gallons of water into the Current River each day.

All of the water is coming from a fairly extensive spring supply system with at least two large, storage reservoirs nearby, Devil's Well and Wallace Well Cave. Wallace Well Cave is immediately downriver from the entrance to Cave Spring and is also owned by the L-A-D Foundation. This is a wild cave, it is not lighted and the entrance to Wallace Well Cave is gated and locked year-round as safety precaution. A short distance into the cave the floor gives way to a hole, beneath which is a large reservoir of water.

The other large underground basin of water that feeds Cave Spring is less than a mile north at Devil's Well, a public use area owned by the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, National Park Service. At Devil's Well visitors can descend a short distance into the mouth of a sinkhole and peer into the water-filled cavern below. The surface area of this reservoir has been measured to be larger than a football field. There is also a trail from Devil's Well connecting with Cave Spring. The trail is a moderately difficult 2-mile hike.

Recognition. Thomas Hart Benton, perhaps Missouri's most famous painter, depicted the scene at the entrance to Cave Spring in a painting he completed in 1963. Benton's love for America was celebrated in his landscapes of the country and its people. The original 'Cave Spring. 1963.' is a canvas painting measuring 30" x 40" and at last report is housed in the Field Enterprises Educational Corporation Collection.

Directions to the site. This area can either be visited by river or by hiking trail. By canoe from Akers Ferry the cave entrance is about two miles downriver along the left bank. The hiking trail can be found at the Devil's Well area which is reached by driving about 19 miles south from Salem on Highway 19, turn west on route KK and go about 1-1.5 miles where there will be a National Park Service sign indicating the turn onto a gravel road which leads to the public use area. This area is managed for the L-A-D Foundation by staff of Pioneer Forest.