On the way to Mountain View we came across our first tourist trap (that we fell into) - a natural bridge but not "thee" natural bridge.  Mountain View it's self was quite a nice town, the people we meet were very friendly and helpful.  I guess you could say it was a real "feel good" town and the music in the streets at night was very entertaining.  Some streets were closed off and the locals arrived with their deck chairs to listen to the bands playing on the street corners.

There was an interesting furniture shop in the main street.

This Old Mill was on the Main Road through town.  It is maintained by a group of .volunteers.

Looking down the price list we got a bag of Pancake mix which was supplied in an old fashion type of flour bag.

top of page

My photo's of Blanchard Springs didn't come out that well so I scanned this from a brochoure.  There are a number of other websites that have pictures and information.  The US Forrest Service has information about the caves formation  There are some photo's here and here

This however is one of my own photo's of the out flow from the caves

Rush was founded in the late 1880s when zinc was found in the surrounding hills.  The Morning Star Mine found the first ore and was the largest mine in the area.  Rush's population peaked prior to World War II when it was 5,000.  After WWI, the zinc market collapsed and in the 1960's the Morning Star Mine Company sold its land and removed many of the buildings that were still there The last remaining buildings were occupied until the 1960's and date back to the early 1900's.