| Location: | 24km northwest of Mountain View, off Hwy 14. (35°57'49.26"N, 92°10'45.58"W) |
| Open: |
APR to Memorial Day daily 9:30-18. Memorial Day to Labor Day daily 9-18:30. Labor Day to OCT daily 9:30-18. NOV to MAR Wed-Sun daily 9:30-18. Dripstone Trail: last tour at 17. Discovery Trail: last tour at 16:30. Wild tour: by reservation only. [2007] |
| Fee: |
Adults USD 10, Children (6-15) USD 5, Golden Age Pass USD 5. Wild tour: Adults USD 75, non refundable deposit USD 25. [2007] |
| Classification: |
 Karst cave
|
| Light: | electric |
| Dimension: | T=14°C |
| Guided tours: |
Dripstone Trail: D=60min., L=648m (summer), L=1,120m (winter), accessible to strollers and wheelchairs. Discovery Trail: D=90min., L=2,000m, 686 stairsteps, only in summer. Wild tour: D=4-5h. |
| Bibliography: | |
| Address: |
USDA Forest Service, PO Box 1279, Mountain View, AR 72560, Tel. +1-501-757-2211. Blanchard Springs Caverns, Visitor Information Center, Tel: +1-888-757-2246. |
| Last update: | $Date: 2008/07/01 20:32:15 $ |
| 900 | remains proof visits by the Bluff Dweller Indians. | |
| 1922 | visited by someone leaving a graffitti saying "John 1922". | |
| 1955 | first documented visit by Roger Bottoms. | |
| 1960 | first professional exploration by Hugh Shell and Hail Bryant. | |
| 1971 | exploration of the waterfilled passages by scuba divers. |
Blanchard Springs Caverns are located in the Sylamore District of the Ozark National Forest offers camping, hiking, fishing and sightseeing opportunities. The cave was developed for tourism by Ozark National Forest in a carefully planned, ten-year project.
The cave was explored in 43 expeditions over 4 years. The members of the team were Hugh Shell, Hail Bryant, Paul Buchanan, Charles Rogers, Mike Hill, Ronnie Sims, Robert Handford, and Billy Sneed. Paul Buchanan, editor of the Batesville Guard-Record, was the one who publicized their findings. The team discovered and surveyed 2,182m of the cave and made more than 1,000 pictures.
The cave has some huge caverns and many speleothems, including soda straws, bacon formations and rimstone pools. Impressive is the spring which gave the cave its name: Blanchard Springs is a typical karst spring, where the cave river leaves the cave with a waterfall. However, the spring was named after John H. Blanchard who homesteaded 64ha of land and built an undershot grist mill here. He was a young veteran, looking for a place in the peaceful Ozarks which could offer escape from the aftermath of the Civil War.
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