Along the edge of the Old Stage Road, just a few hundred feet from the Rock House Historic Shrine, near Sparta TN, a pipe erupts through an old metal bucket filled with concrete. Even during the driest of droughts, copious amounts of pure water pour from that pipe. For many years people have claimed that the force in the pipe was artesian. The fact is, farther up the mountain the water is cordoned and funneled through a hodge-podge of pipe miraculously laid through the rocks to a point just above the Rock House. Allegedly this was a refueling point for early trains to take on water for for their steam engines. Later a cistern was erected and the water was used to supply a number of homes in Bear Cove.

Curators at the “Rock House” and many others have drank from the spring. The water is so clear, one might think that a municipal water line had burst. The pipe doesn’t freeze in the winter. The flow doesn’t seem to diminish in the summer. There is no telling how long that spring has flowed and doesn’t seem to tire. The pipe and bucket make a crude fountain, a joy to see and hear.

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