State Commissioners Tour Education Site

Game & Fish Plans Amenities On Partnership Land

Officials with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and Illinois River Watershed Partnership gaze Wednesday at clear spring water spilling from a cave entrance in Cave Springs where Game & Fish will build education facilities and possibly a regional office. About 50 Game & Fish and partnership representatives toured the 30-acre site that was formerly Lake Keith.
Officials with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and Illinois River Watershed Partnership gaze Wednesday at clear spring water spilling from a cave entrance in Cave Springs where Game & Fish will build education facilities and possibly a regional office. About 50 Game & Fish and partnership representatives toured the 30-acre site that was formerly Lake Keith.

CAVE SPRINGS — The transformation of a Cave Springs landmark into an education destination begins Monday when Sanctuary by the Lake, the former Lake Keith, is drained.

The 6-acre lake near downtown is at the center of 30 acres owned by the Illinois River Watershed Partnership. The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission will build education facilities on the property as part of an agreement with the partnership. Trails, a fishing pier and pavilion are part of the first phase of construction.

AT A GLANCE

Sanctuary by the Lake Facts

Sanctuary by the Lake, the former Lake Keith, in Cave Springs was once a thriving resort with cabins and an ice rink, said Delia Haak, executive director of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership. It was built in 1947 and named for E.L. Keith, former owner of the lake. The first dam was built about 100 years ago as part of a grist mill.

The lake is 6 acres in size and averages 12 to 14 feet deep. It is spring fed by water that is 55 degrees and spills from a cave at the head of the lake. The cave holds the world’s largest population of threatened Ozark cavefish and endangered gray bats. Algae on the lake is caused by droppings from the bats.

A trout hatchery and pay trout fishing were once part of the lake.

Source: Illinois River Watershed Partnership

About 50 representatives from Game & Fish and the partnership toured the property Wednesday to walk the land and discuss its potential. The property has a large cave and spring, along with meadows and a forest with 23 tree species.

Game & Fish may also move its regional office from Beaver Lake Dam to the Cave Springs site.

The tour group included eight Game & Fish commissioners. Commissioners have approved $880,000 for the first phase of construction, said Ron Duncan of Springdale, chairman of the panel. In addition to commissioners, several paid staff members from Game & Fish viewed the site, including Mike Armstrong, deputy director.

Armstrong said the first phase of the project is to build parking areas, restrooms, trails, a pavilion and a fishing pier so education programs can begin quickly. Those should be finished in early summer of 2014, he said.

Students in Northwest Arkansas’ schools will likely be the first to use the site, said Delia Haak, executive director of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership. The partnership purchased the 30 acres from a bank a year ago.

Draining the lake will allow the fishing pier to be built and the lake bottom improved, Haak said. Once the lake is refurbished and refills, it will be stocked with rainbow trout, largemouth bass and catfish.

The spring-fed lake is cool enough near the spring for trout, but warm enough near the dam for the warm-water bass and catfish, said Armstrong, formerly of Bentonville. The spring’s flow rate is 6 million gallons per day, Haak said.

The cave is home to more than 100 threatened Ozark cavefish and about 4,500 endangered gray bats. Visitors won’t be allowed in the cave once programs begin, Haak said, but a pavilion or auditorium modeled after the cave may be built so people can experience what it’s like inside a wild cave.

The cave has two passages that total 2,000 feet, Haak noted. The entrance is gated to prevent entry.

Concrete remnants of a trout hatchery are visible near the cave and spring. These will be removed and the area restored to its original condition, Haak said.

The property is closed to the public. It's open occasionally for special events, Haak said.

The cave, spring, bats, fish and forest are all nuggets for education that few other Game & Fish properties have, said Duncan. Commissioner Ken Reeves of Harrison agreed.

“It’s just beautiful. You can see this property has something for everybody to enjoy,” he said.

Phase 2 of the project includes building a new regional Game & Fish office on adjacent land south of the cave. Money for that hasn’t been approved, Duncan said. Commissioners must approve an additional $1 million for Phase 2, which includes classroom space.

Moving the regional office from the dam to Cave Springs is an urgent need, said Sonny Varnell of St. Paul, a former commissioner.

The office at Beaver Dam is too remote, hard to find and too small, Varnell said.

“It’s paramount that the regional office be relocated to this facility,” he said.

Duncan said the Beaver Dam office is the least visited regional office in the state, despite serving an area that is No. 1 or No. 2 in population.

“It gets less traffic than our office in Calico Rock,” Duncan said.

Armstrong said an office in Cave Springs will allow all Game & Fish divisions in Northwest Arkansas to work under one roof. Right now, the fisheries division works in Rogers and the wildlife division at Lake Wedington. At least one area employee works from home.

Education offerings and a new regional office will increase awareness of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission in Northwest Arkansas and allow the agency to better serve its customers, Armstrong said.

Wednesday’s tour was part of the monthly meeting of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission panel of commissioners, which is usually in Little Rock. The September meeting was set for Northwest Arkansas on Wednesday and today so commissioners could tour the Cave Springs site and the Charlie Craig State Fish Hatchery at Centerton.

Game & Fish officials have considered closing the hatchery because of an unreliable water supply and building a hatchery at the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority wastewater treatment plant southwest of Bentonville.

The commissioners hold their regular meeting at 10 a.m. today in the Springdale City Council chambers, 201 Spring St. The public is welcome. The agenda includes hearing from Fort Smith area residents who disagree with Game & Fish regulations about bringing deer carcasses into Arkansas from out of state, mainly Oklahoma.

Commissioners will also hear reports from fisheries, wildlife, and enforcement divisions.

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