A Day at Sequiota Park

Caleb and I spent a great day out at Sequoita (“Many Springs”) Park in a section of Springfield that was, until 1969, the village of Sequoita. From 1920 to 1959 the area was designated a Missouri State Park and used as a fish hatchery for bass, trout, crappie, and perch. Since 1959, the area has been a very popular Springfield City Park.

The biggest attraction of the park is its three caves. Sequiota Park is one of the few places in Springfield with non-commercial public caves located on-site.

Here is Caleb exploring “Walk-all-the-Way Cave”. A small store was opened and operated out of this cave for a short time after the Civil War by Major Charles Galloway, one of the park’s former private owners. Just to the left of this cave is the smaller “Crawl-all-the Way Cave”.

The largest cave in the park is Fisher’s Cave (also known as Springdale Cave and Brashear’s Cave). Fisher’s Cave is considerably more extensive than the other two caves, extending nearly half a mile underground. It was once, while still privately owned, possible to take boat tours back into the cave to view its formations and its waterfall a quarter of a mile from the opening. I understand that it is still possible to gain permission to explore the cave. If it is not too difficult to do so, perhaps I will grab my canoe and do a bit of spelunking.

Here is Caleb throwing rocks into the pool of water in front of Fisher’s Cave. Approximately 5-11 million gallons of water a day flows from the spring that feeds this pool.

The caves are not the only attraction at the park. Caleb also enjoyed

climbing the rocks…

hiking the dry creek (once we found his shoes)…

exploring some hidden places…

feeding the geese…

and playing in the playground…

The one thing I did not allow him to do was to swim in the duck pond. He did manage, however, to strip down to his underwear before I stopped him and made him get re-dressed. I can certainly understand his disappointment. In fact, had the water been a little clearer and the park a little less crowded, I might have let him splash around a bit. In fact, I might have joined him for a dip.

Today provided a great reminder of just how wonderful an autumn day in the Ozarks can be.

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