Where Does the Spring Water Go?

Roughly 7-20 million gallons of water emerge from The Big Spring every day. Even in the 19th and 20th centuries, when people used the spring as their main water supply, most of the water generated by The Big Spring flowed down the Indian Creek Canal and eventually ended up in the Tennessee River. Completed in 1831, the canal served as the main transportation route for agricultural goods to the port town of Triana. Prior to the completion of the Memphis and Charleston rail line in 1857, water transportation was the best way to move products to market. Today, water emerging from The Big Spring Cave still flows into the Tennessee River, passing down the Indian Creek Canal to Pinhook Creek, then south and west into Indian Creek on the southern border of Redstone Arsenal, before Indian Creek merges with the Tennessee River near Triana.

Huntsville, Alabama · United States