Location

Guy-James spring is a small spring with a nice run to the local East Fork of Stones River. It is just off the intersection of Halls-Hill Pike and Guy-James Road and at the end of rut road, outside of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in Rutherford County.

Description

The small spring is approximately 25 feet in diameter with a sloping sandy bottom with patches of grass. A large limestone shelf along the south side overhangs the cave entrance at a depth of 10 feet. The spring run is shallow, but depth and width depends on local rainfall. Typically the depth in the run is a 6 inches or so, but can be several feet. The run is approximately 10 feet wide. The spring is surrounded by trees at the end of a farmed field and sits about 75 feet below the surrounding uploads. Guy-James farm, owned by Middle Tennessee State University, borders one side of the spring. The cave has been explored to over 3,000 feet and continues on, with many side passages. It is partially a solution cave and partially a fracture cave with many interesting features. Crayfish and the Southern Cavefish are numerous. Depths hold steady at 18-20 feet for the first 1,000 feet or so, then drop to 40 feet in the remainder of the explored passages.

Discharge

Has not been measured, but varies from a trickle to rapids depending on local rainfall. No flow on 5/10/2007.

Temperature is in Celcius (22C = 72F), TDS is Total Dissolved Solids, DO is Dissolved Oxygen, Nitrate is NO3+NO2 as Nitrogen, Nitrite is NO2 as Nitrogen, Phosphate is PO4, E. Coli (number of colonies per 100 mL) measured using Easy Coliscan method. All values are reported in parts per million (mg/L), except Turbidity (JTU's or meters). Turbidity measured in NTU in 2002 and in JTU or meters in later years, NTU of 10 is crystal clear, at 50 there is haze or "see-through milky." JTU is essentially centimeters of clarity, so 60+ or 100+ indicates crystal clear water. Secchi Disk is depth in meters (m). WQI is the water quality index, a summary figure (100 is best possible). Critter counts are subjective categories of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, and are based on the number of individuals and variety of species.

Summary

The spring is generally healthy, with low nitrate and a normal pH. Aquatic and insect life is abundant and appears healthy. Data was collected before the completion of the test kit so some parameters are unknown until the next test. In addition to the E. Coli colonies, there were 100 colonies of non-fecal coliform and 480 colonies of "other bacteria" (per 100 mL).

National Association for Cave Diving, PO Box 14492, Gainesville, FL 32604, Telephone and Fax: 1-888-565-NACD (6223)