From the state parks brochure...Local folklore includes the tale of an Indian Chief who son died while searching for water during a drought.  While digging his son's rave, a giant stream of water gushed forth.  The Chief believed this spring would flow forever because his son died searching for water.  The spring actually comes up 80 feet below the center of this spot.

It is said the spring has to much nitrogen to maintain fish life but I guess that doesn't pertain to snakes.  This one was swimming along with a fish he got from somewhere....maybe the Citgo down the road.

You are standing at the headwater of the Spring River.

Not only has the spring provided a source of power for the city of Mammoth Spring, it is a source of recreation for many outdoor enthusiasts.

The 9.78 million gallons of water that flows over this dam every hour makes the Spring River one of the most consistent float streams in the state. The cool 58 degree water is ideal for rainbow trout. As the river flows toward Hardy, it warms, making it more conducive to walleye and smallmouth bass.

Mammoth Spring is the 10th largest spring in the world.

Dam Site #1 and Mammoth Spring Milling Company

The dam seen here was constructed in 1887 & 1888 for the Mammoth Spring Milling Company. Each stone was hand-quarried and fit into place using no mechanical equipment. The concrete structure, to your left on the far side of the dam, is all that remains of the Milling Company. It served as the Company's vault where the safe with important records and documents was stored. The Company's safe and time clock are on display at the Depot Museum.

In 1925, the Arkansas-Missouri Power Co. bought the rights to this dam and two others downstream. Dam #2 later washed away, but Dam #3 still stands 3 miles south. These dams provided electrical power for the Mammoth Spring-Thayer, Missouri, area until 1972.

The water flows over the dam at the same rate as it flows from the Spring - 9 million gallons per hour. The Spring River begins at this point and winds its way southeast where it converges with the Eleven Point and Black Rivers.

Dam construction began in 1887 and was completed in 1888.

Built by the Mammoth Spring Improvement and Water Power Company, the dam was 15 feet high, and 225 feet long. The builders used quarried limestone and earth fill set in a concrete footing in solid rock.

This building was constructed by the Arkansas-Missouri Power Company in 1927. The generator and equipment inside are all original, with the exception of the oil circuit breaker, which was replaced in 1956. At a cost of $11,000, the generator was rated at 550 Kilowatts and could produce 2400 volts at a speed of 150 RPMs.

This plant was taken out of service in 1972 because it was no longer economical to operate due to high operating and maintenance costs. Arkansas-Missouri Power Company donated this hydroelectric plant to Arkansas State Parks in 1972.

Fulton County according to the 1919 Arkansas Gazette

Situated in the northern part of Arkansas, on the Missouri line, is a county that is known, because of its features, from one end of the civilized world to the other. This is Fulton county, the home of the justly famous Mammoth Spring, which spring has a full sized river - Spring river - at its source. So beautiful, so full of grandeur and so wonderful are these natural curiosities that were they in some of the forgotten places of Europe, poets would sing and lyrics would be written of them that would echo around the world and they would be the scene annually of tourist gatherings from the four corners of the globe.

The city of Mammoth Spring is a charming town of about $1,500; all lighted; has fine water and strictly modern. It has factories, churches of every denomination, about 35 progressive mercantile establishments, a $12,000 graded and high school, from native stone, and it is the outlet for at least 35 contiguous towns in both Arkansas and Missouri counties, of farmers and others receiving and sending freight and express. The Frisco (Kansas City - Memphis - Birmingham lines) runs through the city, and a number of trains in each direction furnish ample passenger service. Mammoth Spring is 142 miles from Memphis, 140 from Springfield, and 342 from Kansas City. This is one reason why it is such a cattle shipping point. It has a fine bank also, and the city is but a half a mile from the Missouri State line, and is in the northeast section of the county. It has a live commercial club, every ready to extend the helping hand to any worthy project or enterprise, and is rapidly becoming known as a convention city.

THE FAMOUS MAMMOTH SPRING

Mammoth Spring is fed from an underground lake, the area of which has never been ascertained. The spring covers 18 acres and has a flow of 300,000 gallons per minute, more water than is used in 24 hours by some of the largest cities in the United States! It flows at an even temperature of 58 degrees and to quote from the late Major Bellamy, of the city of Mammoth Spring: "Nothing affects it. Its purity remains undimmed, when the showers of spring transform mountain streams into veritable sewers; cloudbursts that drown wide valleys, and droughts that drive cattle from the distant lowlands, neither add to nor take from its constant, never-varying flow; and the keenest blast of cold winter that ever scaled the Ozarks and rushed as a conqueror down these sunny slopes, has never yet been able to capture and imprison in its icy fetters a single wavelet on the placid bosom of this might spring."

Mammoth Springs supplies today 1,000 horsepower, with a total capacity of 3,000 horsepower developed for the operation of the Mammoth Spring Electric Light and Power Company, a corporation organized in the 1909, the plant, dam and lines costing in all $300,000.

Salem is the county seat and is the seat of the Northeast Arkansas Fair, which attracts live stock exhibits from all over this section of the state.