Lost River - Karst Information Portal

Harrison Spring is, by any measure, the
largest spring in Indiana. The spring is
located in an abandoned meander loop of Blue
River at about 440 feet elevation in the NE¼,
Section 19, T3S, R3E. Water emerges from a
submerged cavern at a depth of 45 feet beneath
a rise pool about 95 feet wide and 120 feet long.
The flow from the spring feeds a three-quartermile-long
spring run that discharges to the
main stem of Blue River just north of the I-64
bridge near White Cloud (Figure 1). It has been
estimated that the spring accounts for roughly
one-fourth of the low-flow discharge of Blue
River at this point. The spring is unique both
from historical and geological perspectives.
William Henry Harrison, governor of
the Northwest Territory from 1800 to 1812,
owned property near the spring and built
and operated a mill 100 feet downstream of
the spring. Squire Boone is reported to have
established a community near the spring in
1802 that became known as Wilsons Springs.
Later, a second mill, the Lemay Mill, was
built on the spring run near the Blue River
confluence. Young Abraham Lincoln passed
through the area to visit his uncle Josiah who
in 1815 owned land to the northwest in the
vicinity of Lincoln Springs.
Spring Flow Rate
The United States Geological Survey
performed monthly flow measurements at
Harrison Spring from 1958 until 1964. The
measurements included flow from the much
smaller Harrison Cave Spring, located along
the spring run to the southeast, but give a
good indication of the flow magnitude. The
measurements ranged from a low of 6.89 cubic
feet per second (cfs) in November 1963 to a high
566 cubic feet per second in March 1956. The
212
Karst Hydrogeology of the
Harrison Spring Area
By John Bassett, LPG, NSS 10525
average of 134 discharge measurements was 100
cubic feet per second. Based on a flow correlation
to the nearby Geological Survey gage on Blue
River at White Cloud the average spring flow was
155 cubic feet per second. The Geological Survey
data suggest that at extreme low flow conditions
the discharge from Harrison Spring makes up
about 49 percent of the flow in Blue River.
Indiana State University graduate student
Jeffery Ehrenzeller performed the seminal
hydrogeologic investigation of Harrison
Spring to date (Ehrenzeller, 1978; Ash and
Ehrenzeller, 1981). Ehrenzeller performed 21
discharge measurements at Harrison Spring
during the period July 1977 to March 1978. The
measurements ranged from 92.0 to 730 cubic
feet per second. Ehrenzeller (1978) estimated,
by flow correlation procedures similar to those
used earlier by the United States Geological
Survey, that Harrison Spring contributed up to
65 percent of the flow of Blue River at White
Cloud during low flow periods, but at high
flow periods this value dropped to less than 13
percent. Clearly, the karst drainage system stores
a large volume of groundwater that is released
via spring flow during low flow periods.
The hydrogeologic significance of Harrison
Spring is further indicated by the comparative
spring flow estimates reported by Earth Tech
(1998). During a two-day base flow field
reconnaissance in August 1997, flow estimates
were made for several other major springs in
the area. Spring locations are shown in Figure
1. A reconnaissance of the main stem of Blue
River was conducted from near Leatherwood
Island Spring downstream to the vicinity of the
State Road 62 bridge. A similar reconnaissance
was conducted along Indian Creek between
State Road 64 and I-64 near Corydon. The
estimated discharges are shown in the table.