Location:

Between 31W and Fort Knox
(entrance off North Wilson Road)

Size:

26 heavily forested acres

Phone:

270-351-1875

E-mail:

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Hours:

Open dawn to dusk all year (weather permitting)

Cost:

Free

Downloads:

Full Brochure (2.2Mb PDF)

Top 25 Reasons to Visit
( 54Kb PDF)

• History of the Preserve
• Forest Ecology
• List of Identified Species

The main spring on the property flows from the mouth of a cave located at the base of a cliff and cascades down a rocky streambed as it works its way downhill. Large foundation stones from a mill operated on the site during the 1800's can still be found along the stream.

The spring was a popular destination for students from the nearby Saunders Spring School who went to the cave for recreation and as a reward for good behavior.

The school, originally established as an independent school in 1868, became affiliated with the Hardin County School District No. 72 in 1908 when the county assumed responsibility for one-room schools. It was named after the historic Saunders Spring, which was named after the Saunders family, the original landowners.

The Federal Government purchased Saunders Springs from Clint Tarpley around 1920 to replace Fort Knox's original water supply at Otter Creek because the wooden transmission line from the Otter Creek plant had deteriorated. The new water supply plant was completed in 1924 with the construction of two dams forming an 80 million gallon reservoir and a smaller holding area near the water plant.

There was a dwelling for the operator at the plant and a cable railway that carried the operator and chemicals up and down the steep hill. The garage where the operator parked his car still remains at the top of the hill, and the operations building and storage tank still remain at the bottom of the hill.

Fort Knox discontinued using Saunders Springs as a water supply in the late 1930's when they developed more extensive water resources. The City of Radcliff purchased the land and put a new water supply plant into operation in 1955. The springs supplied drinking water for Radcliff from 1955 to 1968 when a well source was developed along the Ohio River and a new plant was built on top of Muldraugh Hill to meet the growing demands of the community.

Saunders Springs continued to be used as an auxiliary water supply until about 1986 when the Pirtle Springs supply was developed at the Head of Rough River.

FOREST ECOLOGY

Saunders Springs is situated in a Mixed Hardwood Forest with a great diversity of species dominated by several different varieties of oaks. There are five different types of plant communities with 80+ native plant species located in the KY native plants garden, along with 30 species of trees and 14 species of shrub understory plants. More than 200 species of ferns, wildflowers, native grasses, vines and mosses cover the ground and over 34 species of animals, including: terrestrial vertebrates, snails, 13 different species of snakes, and aquatic macroinvertebates inhabit the forest. The life history of Saunders Springs has greatly influenced the forest ecology. Openings created for roadways, building sites, and the lake have given room for plants such as eastern red cedar and smooth sumac. These openings have added to the overall diversity of species and richness of the site. The upper elevations at Saunders Springs have very well drained soils. These soils are relatively thin and at some locations are very thin. These dry conditions have favored and produces a mixed oak stand. In the lower and moister elevations oaks continue to dominate but many more species such as sugar maple, American beech, tulip poplar and sycamore enter the mix. LIST OF IDENTIFIED SPECIES Trees   Shrubs   Ferns, Wildflowers & Vines American Beech Bitternut Hickory Black Gum Black Cherry Black Oak Black Walnut Blackjack Oak Box Elder Chinquapin Oak Eastern Redbud Flowering Dogwood Hackberry Hophornbeam Ironwood Mockernut Hickory Northern Red Oak Ohio Buckeye Persimmon Pignut Hickory Pin Oak Post Oak Red Cedar Sandbar Willow Sassafras Scarlet Oak Shagbark Hickory Shingle Oak Shumard Oak Slippery Elm Sugar Maple Sycamore Tulip Poplar Virginia Pine White Ash White Oak Black Locust Blackberry Blackhaw Bladdernut Buttonbush Carolina Buckthorn Coral Berry Devil's Walking Stick Dwarf Hackberry Fragrant Sumac Holly Honeylocust Hydrangea KY Coffeetree Pawpaw Silky Dogwood Smooth Sumac Spicebush Strawberrybush Winged Sumac Alum Root Aster Avens Baneberry Bear's Foot Beardtongue Beech-Drops Bellflower Bergamot Bishop's Cap Black-Eyed Susan Blazing Star Bloodroot Blue-eyed Grass Bluestar Bluets Boneset Bottlebrush Grass Bundleflower Bundleflower Butterweed Cardinal Flower Catchfly Christmas Fern Columbine Comfrey Compass Plant Crested Iris Crown Vetch Crownbeard Culvers Root Cup Plant Cutleaf Toothwort Evening Primrose False Aloe False Foxglove False Goats Beard False Solomons Seal Fleabane Foamflower Garlic Ginseng Goats Rue Golden Alexander Goldenrod Goldenseal Green Dragon Ground Ivy Guara Heal-All Hepatica Hoary Puccoon Honeysuckle Vine Horse Tail Houstonia Hyssop Indian Pipe Indigo Ironweed Jack-In-The-Pulpit Jewelweed Joe-Pye Weed Ladies Tresses Larkspur Lobelia Maiden Hair Fern Mallow Mayapple Milk Vetch Milkweed Mist Flower Monket-Flower Mountain Mint Narrow-leaved Cattail Pennyroyal Phacelia Phlox Plantain Poison Ivy Prairie Dock Pussytoes Ragwort Rattlesnake Master Rockcress Rosinweed Rue Anemone Ruella Scouring Rush Sicklepod Smartweed Snake Root Sneezeweed Solomons Seal Spangle Grass Spotted Wintergreen Squawroot Squirrel Corn Star Chickweed Steeple-bush Stonecrop Sunflowers Sword Fern Tickseed Trillium Turtlehead Vervain Virginia Bluebells Virginia Creeper Virginia Grape Fern Walking Fern Wild Geranium Wild Ginger Wild Senna Wild Yam Wood Poppy