Blue Spring Heritage Center
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Blue Spring Heritage Center (formerly known as Eureka Springs Gardens) is a
privately owned A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the company's stock is ...
tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...
in the
Arkansas Heritage Trails System Arkansas Heritage Trails System is a network of four historic trails within the state of Arkansas. The heritage trails system was established by the Arkansas General Assembly on March 31, 2009.Arkansas State Legislature (2009).Heritage Trails Sy ...
containing native plants and hardwood trees in a setting of woodlands, meadows, and hillsides. It is located at Highway 62 West, five miles (8 km) west of
Eureka Springs, Arkansas Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States, and one of two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas, near the border with Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the city popula ...
, and open daily to the public during warmer months for a fee."The Eureka Springs Story" by Otto Ernest Rayburn, Times-Echo Press, Eureka Springs, 1982. The spring pours 38 million US gallons (140,000 m³) of water daily into the trout-filled lagoon. Blue Spring has been a tourist attraction since 1948, and is now on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
for its archaeological significance as a site occupied between the
Early Archaic Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...
and the
Mississippian Mississippian may refer to: * Mississippian (geology), a subperiod of the Carboniferous period in the geologic timescale, roughly 360 to 325 million years ago * Mississippian cultures, a network of precontact cultures across the midwest and Easte ...
periods. Historians from several Indian nations, including the Tsalagi (Cherokee), Osage and Quapaw, say their people have been making journeys to, and living intermittently at Blue Spring for tens of thousands of years. Artifacts excavated at the Blue Spring Shelter support this, as they date back to between 8000 B.C. and A.D. 1500.Arkansas Preservation Website:


Blue Spring Shelter

The American Indian people who lived here in ancient times (10,000 years ago and beyond to 500 B.C.) are known as the ‘Bluff Dwellers’. These indigenous people populated not only the Blue Spring area, but much of the Ozark Mountains. They lived beneath giant bluff shelters such as this one. As most human beings of their time, they hunted, gathered, and planted. Tools, clothes and many other necessary items were made from many native plants and animals available to them. They also traded goods with other Indian nations. Indigenous people who lived here between 500 B.C. and A.D. 900 continued to hunt, gather, plant and trade, though planting gardens had become a more prominent activity. With over 62% of the world's food having been developed by American Indians, it is no surprise that the Indians of the Ozarks domesticated maygrass, lamb's quarter, knotweek, sumpweek, sunflower, squash, and strains of little barley. The bottomlands and terraces of the White River provided fertile garden spots for the indigenous occupants of the Blue Spring Shelter. From A.D. 900 to A.D. 1541, agriculture had become an integral part of many Indian communities in the Ozarks and Arkansas area. They depended mostly on maize, squash and beans. As always, hunting, gathering and trading remained an important part of society. The Blue Spring Shelter continued to be used by Indian people for short and long term camps, and for ceremony. In recent history (1541 to present), Tsalagi (Cherokee) people made a stop at Blue Spring on the “Trail of Tears” during the late 1830s. Indian people continue to spend time at Blue Spring and Blue Spring Shelter. Today, visits and ceremonies by Indian people such as Lenape, Musogee, Cherokee, and Lakota take place at the Blue Spring Shelter regularly. It remains a place of peace, healing, and connection.Official Website of Blue Spring Heritage Center: http://www.bluespringheritage.com/


See also

*
List of botanical gardens in the United States This list is intended to include all significant botanical gardens and arboretums in the United States.National Register of Historic Places listings in Carroll County, Arkansas __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Carroll County, Arkansas. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, A ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Spring Heritage Center 2003 establishments in Arkansas Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Arkansas Heritage Trails System Botanical gardens in Arkansas Caddoan Mississippian culture Museums established in 2003 Museums in Carroll County, Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, Arkansas Trail of Tears