The Caverns Of Blanchard Springs: A Song History

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"The Caverns Of Blanchard Springs" is the second of seven tunes in Karen Keane's Fingers Of Steel book Lullabayou, whose listing credits every piece, this one included, to Keane as composer and recommends the collection to fingerpickers and flatpickers alike.[1] Keane is a Shreveport, Louisiana, musician and music educator who performs with John Keane on mountain dulcimer, Native American flute, ukulele and cajon.[2]

Etched landscape of wooded hills with small figures among rocks and trees

Herman van Swanevelt, The Cave, etching and engraving, c. 1652–54. Shown for its title; it has no connection to Blanchard Springs or to the tune.

The title names Blanchard Springs Caverns, which lie in the Sylamore Ranger District of the Ozark–St. Francis National Forest, about fifteen miles northwest of Mountain View in Stone County, Arkansas.[3] The Encyclopedia of Arkansas calls it the only cave run by the U.S. Forest Service, dates the first documented visit to 1934, and records that its Dripstone Trail opened to the public in 1973 and its Discovery Trail in 1977.[3] The Forest Service, whose interpreters guide every tour, describes it as a living cave whose stalactites, stalagmites, columns and flowstone are still being built by mineral-laden drips.[4]

Our book that contains the song "The Caverns Of Blanchard Springs"

Sources

  1. Fingers Of Steel: "Karen Keane, Lullabayou".
  2. DulcimerDownloads: "Karen Keane".
  3. Encyclopedia of Arkansas: "Blanchard Springs Caverns".
  4. USDA Forest Service: "Ozark-St. Francis National Forest: Tours".
  5. Image: Herman van Swanevelt, The Cave, etching and engraving, c. 1652–54. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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