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Feature article
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Hidden Treasures: Ebbing and Flowing Spring unique to the United States
By Leigh Ann Laube
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Editor’s Note: As part of our Hidden Treasures series, which runs each Thursday during the summer months, GoTriCities staff writers highlight places and events right here in our own back yard that many folks don’t know even exist. Got an idea or suggestion? We’d love to hear it. Write to the Kingsport Times-News, c/o Jessica Fischer, at 701 Lynn Garden Drive, Kingsport, Tenn. 37662 or e-mail jfischer@timesnews.net.
Intrigued by the chance to visit one of only two known springs in the world to exhibit tidal characteristics, my son and I set out one morning for Rogersville.
In the spirit of Daniel Boone, we armed ourselves with a GPS, two cell phones, one iPod and two bottles of water in search of Ebbing and Flowing Spring Road, home to the Ebbing and Flowing Spring, located a couple of miles from downtown. (If we wanted to explore the other known ebbing and flowing spring, we’d have to fly to Germany).
We found the spring easily enough, but not recognizing that the body of water flowing across the road was our destination, we drove back and forth over it a couple of times. A call to the Rogersville/Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce confirmed our position.
The spring is located on property that once belonged to Thomas Amis, the father-in-law of Rogersville’s founder, Joseph Rogers. Today the spring is privately owned by descendents of Amis, but is open to the public.
There are no directional signs to the spring, but you’re close if you see signs to the Ebbing and Flowing Springs United Methodist Church.
To aid in finding the spring, watch for the old cinder block dairy house. The spring pools behind this abandoned building, then flows under and through the dairy and across the road. From there it travels parallel to the road.
During a period of two hours and 47 minutes, the water flow is said to range from an indiscernible trickle to 500 gallons per minute. And, it’s said that the water maintains a constant temperature of 34 degrees Fahrenheit.
Today, that property is owned by Mary Doty.
“It’s been in my family for over 200 years,” Doty said. “My grandmother was an Amis [pronounced “Amy”]. That’s where we got the land.”
Doty was born on the property and now owns 150 acres. In addition to housing the spring, the property also includes the Ebbing and Flowing Spring School, built in the early 1800s, and the Ebbing and Flowing Springs United Methodist Church, built in 1898.
Doty believes no one knows where the spring originates.
“We have no idea,” she said. “Of course, we’ve had people who wanted to search.”
The spring’s tidal characteristics were noticed centuries ago and are mentioned in the original land grant given to her foreparents, Doty said, but no one can fully explain its tidal characteristics.
“Everybody has given an opinion, but the only way they could know is to allow them to explore, and we didn’t let anyone explore because we didn’t want it ruined,” she said.
Doty’s father owned and operated the nearby dairy for many years. For a long time, the Ebbing and Flowing Spring Dairy was the only dairy serving that area. Doty couldn’t remember when it finally closed.
Local legend — which Doty reiterated — suggests that any couple drinking from the spring at the peak of its flow will marry within the year. Some suggest that the spring’s power was discovered first by Joseph Rogers, who was said to have drunk from the spring with Mary Amis, who later became his wife.
After exploring the spring, my son and I moved down the road in search of the ruins of an old stone mill, one of the markers used by folks at the chamber to guide visitors to the spring.
The ruins are hidden in an overgrown area off the narrow country road, near a dam-like structure. There’s a trail you can follow, and you can climb into the ruins and imagine what life was like during the heyday of the mill.
To get to the Ebbing and Flowing Spring, from downtown Rogersville, travel east about a mile to Burem Road. Bear right at the Amis House historical marker. Turn left on Ebbing and Flowing Spring Road. The ruins of the stone mill are about one-tenth of a mile on the right. Continue nearly a half mile to where the spring crosses the road. The concrete dairy house will be on your left. The gravel road to the right leads to the church and school.
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