Ozarks Rivers Heritage Foundation, 4500 State Highway 265, Branson, MO 65616, US

Tumbling Creek Cave, located in rural southeastern Taney County, Missouri, is a remarkable natural landmark known for its extensive network of mapped passages adorned with stunning speleothems such as stalactites, stalagmites, and cave coral. The cave, featured in the Time-Life book The Ozarks, boasts a magnificent Big Room that stretches 60 feet high and lies 170 feet below the crest of Cave Ridge. As a vital component of the Ozark Underground Laboratory, Tumbling Creek Cave has served as a research and education field center since 1966, welcoming thousands of college students on educational field trips and hosting numerous ongoing research projects. The cave's underground stream, Tumbling Creek, is fed by over 60 groundwater traces, revealing a vast 9.02 square mile recharge area that contributes water to the cave. With flow rates reaching up to 100 million gallons per day during rainstorms, the cave stream feeds multiple springs, including those along Big Creek and Bear Cave Hollow. Tumbling Creek Cave has been the subject of various studies, focusing on water movement within the cave system, groundwater tracing, water chemistry, and the correlation between land use and water quality. Additionally, the cave has been a site for biological research, particularly in monitoring the population of summer gray bats through infrared filming and thermal tracking systems.Generated from the website