Blue Spring Heritage Center in northwest Arkansas is a 33-acre garden and archaeological site centered on Blue Spring, whose waters feed a trout-filled lagoon. Beyond its modern role as a seasonal public attraction, the site is historically important for Blue Spring Shelter, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and occupied from the Early Archaic through the Mississippian periods. Artifacts dating from about 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1500 show a long span of Indigenous use, from hunting, gathering, planting, and trade to agriculture based on maize, squash, and beans. Cherokee people stopped here on the Trail of Tears, and Native visits and ceremonies continue today.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas · USA