LOGAN COMMUNITY — Residents of the Logan Community will be holding their annual homecoming at noon on June 24, and local residents and all who have roots in the the community are invited to attend. A noon meal will be served.

For more information, call Ava Griffin at 736-2519.

The following brief history of the Logan Community was submitted by Griffin. Information on the Logan Cave is from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Celebrating Logan’s 175 Years By Ava Griffin

Logan is located about 12 miles east of Siloam Springs. Settlers were coming as early as 1837.

For many years the main road between Siloam Springs and Springdale went through Gallatin (Allen's country plant), where a distillery was located, and on through Logan, Thornsberry, Wager and Elm Springs. During the early days of Logan, wagon trains were a daily sight.

Tanyard Spring (located on the Griffin's Ozark Acres Farm) got its name because of a tannery that was operated there during the Civil War days.

Logan had two stores. The first was owned by Nathan Leach, the second and last by Will "Unkie” Dellinger. The blacksmith was just north of the cross roads in Logan, and oxen shoes were found there a few years ago. At one time, Logan had a central telephone office and residents listened for the long and shorts to indicate who was being called on the party line.

The old Union Church was a familiar building that stood for many years. It was used by all denominations.Stirring revivals were conducted annually. Baptisms were held in the Osage Creek near the old mill.

The Osage Creek, which flows through the Logan Community, has always been a recreational area. The old Logan Bridge was built by local men. It served well, although for many years a condemnation warning was attached. The structure collapsed in 1975 as Clyde Lacy was crossing in a fertilizer truck. It was replaced by an overflow bridge in 1976. An old grist mill was located just up the creek, east of the bridge. Frank Sullivan (Rosa Reading's father) was the miller.

A wonderful and hugenew bridge built by the State of Arkansas is now used for crossing the Osage.

The Logan Cave was commercialized during the early days by the Plew Family, and they had several boats inside. Trips could be made to explore the cave.

According to records, a post office was established at Logan on Jan. 15, 1875. The mail hack brought the mail from Siloam Springs to the Dellinger Store. The post office was discontinued on Nov. 15, 1906.

Surnames for the early settlers in Logan were: Twiggs, Tursinger, Downum, Davis, Dellinger, Carney, Guthery, Sullivan, Anglin, Riley, Strickland, Palmer, Willis, McIntyre, Owings, Galley and Leach.

Logan Community remains an industrious, prosperous part of Benton County. The people of Logan extend a cordial invitation to all, to attend their annual homecoming and noon meal on June 24, 2012.

Descendants of the early settlers are asked to bring pictures, family heirlooms and artifacts to display for the day. Prizes will be given for the best early-day costume, oldest man and lady attending and couple married the longest. Many more prizes will be offered by the Logan Friendly Neighbors Club.

Logan Cave National Wildlife Refuge

Logan Cave NWR in Benton County became the 455th National Wildlife Refuge on March 14, 1989, under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This 123-acre Ozark Mountain refuge, which includes a limestone-solution cave, is located 20 miles west of Fayetteville and approximately 2 miles north of U.S. Highway 412.

The Logan Cave area has a very diverse habitat which includes representatives of several Ozark Mountain types: oak-hickory forest, grassland, shrubland, floodplain, marshland, bottomland hardwood, upland deciduous and a small prairie. The ecology of the cave has been described as the highest quality cave habitat in the entire Ozark region. A spring-fedstream, with an average water flow of 5 million gallons per day, extends the entire length of the cave. This stream, fed by small springs that emanate from the cave, once supplied water to the Logan community, a fish hatchery and 49 fish ponds. Today, the spring forms a small stream which flows into the Osage Creek, a majortributary of the Illinois River. Geological features of the cave distinctly exhibit how Ozark limestonesolution caves are formed. Many fossil marine species are present in the cave, evidence that the region was once covered by an ocean. Extensive deposits of fine alluvial clays of homogenous texture border the stream in some areas.

The primary objectives of Logan Cave NWR are to properly administer, preserve and develop the tract for protection of a unique cave ecosystem that provides essential habitat for the endangered gray bat, endangered Ozark cave crayfish, the threatened Ozark cavefish and other significant cavedwelling wildlife species. Gray bats use the cave in the spring and summer as a maternity site and the Ozark cave crayfish is known toexist only in Logan Cave and one other site.

Because of intolerable disturbances to the gray bats and the cave's other protected species, public use of Logan Cave NWR is prohibited. Entrance into the cave by Fish and Wildife Service personnel is restricted and all entry is prohibited from March through September to protect the gray bat maternity colony from disturbance.

Logan Cave is a large limestone-solution cave with approximately 1 1/2 miles of charted passageways. The three ecological classification types (tunnel, seepage and sinkhole) are present in different sections of the cave. The cave's internal temperature is a constant 55 degrees Farenheit.

The sinkhole and spring entrances are the only two known entry points.The sinkhole consists of a funnel-shaped depression about 50 feet in diameter on a forested hillside; the spring entrance is located on a hillside under an overhang rock bluff.

The cave's passageway is relatively narrow with a low ceiling. In some areas, the ceiling gradually declines leaving only a tiny crawl space.

About halfway through the cave is an area where the endangered gray bats congregate their maternity colony. The cave is also home to an endangered cave crayfish and the threatened Ozark cavefish.Other interesting life forms found throughout the cave include: pseudoscorpions, isopods, amphipods, beetles, collembolans and other insects which are blind, without pigment, and strictly adapted to a subterranean habitat. Common wildlife species seen outside the cave include deer, squirrels, herons, swallows and hawks and numerous amphibians and reptiles.

Logan Cave was included within the Refuge System under: (1) the Endangered Species Act of 1973 which authorized the acquisition of lands for the conservation of endangered species, and (2) the authority of the Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Act of 1986 which appropriated funds for such purposes.

In past years, the water flow from Logan Spring was recorded at 5 million gallons per day. The spring water supplied the Logan community, a fish hatchery, and 49 fish ponds. Today, the spring forms a small stream which flows into the Osage Creek, a major tributary of the Illinois River.

News, Pages 7 on 06/20/2012