Aquifer: A Novel by Gary Barnes

Author:Gary Barnes [Barnes, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Spring Press
Published: 2012-08-16T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Fears Cave

The next morning Johnny, Frankie, and Austin, decided to go spelunking in Fears Cave. Johnny had previously made numerous trips to the cave but had never ventured more than a few hundred yards inside. He was always afraid of being caught.

Years earlier, in the 1940s, the land around the cave had been part of the farm owned by Johnny’s great-grandfather. One hundred years before that, Johnny’s 5th-great-grandfather, James Monroe Fears, moved his family from Peducka, Kentucky, to the Current River area of the Ozarks of Southern Missouri and staked out a homestead. In the mid 1840s the cave had served as the temporary family home for almost a year while they built a log and sod cabin, cleared farm land and planted their crops. From that time forth the cave had been known as Fears Cave by the locals.

All of Johnny’s older relatives had shared wonderful stories with him about their exploring experiences inside Fears Cave. Now, however, the cave was part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways park system. It was located at Owl’s Bend about ten miles east of Eminence, just off Highway 106 where it crossed the Current River, about a half-mile upstream from Blue Spring.

At various times during the Civil War both the North and the South had mined sodium nitrate, or saltpeter, from the abundant supply of bat guano in Fears Cave for use in the manufacture of gun powder. Unfortunately this activity created a misunderstanding in the minds of historians who generally confused it with Powder Mill Cave which was located a quarter of a mile farther upstream along the Current River and higher up the bluff wall, making it much less accessible to tourists. It too had been used for the mining of saltpeter and was located much closer to the mill operations established along the riverbank. The confusion was further compounded by misnaming the creek that sprang from the mouth of Fears Cave. It was called Powder Mill Creek.

In the late 1960s, the Fears family was forced to abandon the farm due to economic conditions coupled with the federal government’s massive land seizures for the creation of the park. Once they and other local citizenry left the area the park service eradicated the name Fears Cave and replaced it with the misnomer, Powder Mill Cave - much to the consternation of the Fears family.

Shortly after the creation of The Ozark National Scenic Riverways Park, the park service, under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, sealed the entrance to Fears Cave with a lattice work of steel bars to preserve its pristine condition and to provide a roosting place for several species of endangered bats. There are over 350 known caves in the park, of which fifteen were similarly sealed and gated. The park service estimates that there are probably twice that many caves awaiting to be discovered. The park also contains over 300 known springs.

Though the park follows the shoreline of the Current River for over 125 miles, as

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