- Cold Water Spring State Preserve
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Coordinates: 43°26′28″N 91°57′37″W / 43.44111°N 91.96028°W Cold Water Spring State Preserve is a 60-acre (240,000 m2) parcel state preserve protecting a spring that issues from Cold Water Cave, an extensive cave system in Winneshiek County, Iowa and Fillmore County, Minnesota. The spring is a tributary of the Upper Iowa River.
The cave system contains a large underground creek that courses around much of the cave's nearly 16 miles (26 km) of passages. The cave system has some unusual features such as its rate of expansion, which is higher than that of most caves. It also has relatively low amounts of oxygen and high amounts of carbon dioxide. The cave is a National Natural Landmark, designated in 1987.
There are two entries; both are on private property.
Coldwater Creek Wildlife Management Area is a state hunting ground near Bluffton, and is near to the cave system.
The cave is located in the Driftless Area of Iowa and Minnesota, a region characterized by karst topography, which involves disappearing streams, blind valleys, sinkholes, caves, cold springs, and cold streams, all of which are present here.
Sources
- Cold Water Spring State Preserve[dead link] Retrieved July 22, 2007
- Karstpreserve.com (An excellent site, maintained by John Ackerman, the man who has done most to explicate the cave system), Retrieved July 22, 2007
- Interview with John Ackerman, July, 2003, Retrieved July 22, 2007 (This is an excellent source of information, from the horse's mouth, so to speak)
Protected Areas of Iowa Federal DeSoto • Driftless Area • Neal Smith • Northern Tallgrass Prairie • Port Louisa • Union Slough • Upper Mississippi River
State Ambrose A. Call • Backbone • Badger Creek • Banner Lakes at Summerset • Beed's Lake • Bellevue • Big Creek • Black Hawk • Brushy Creek • Cedar Rock • Clear Lake • Dolliver Memorial • Elk Rock • Elinor Bedell • Emerson Bay • Fairport • Fort Defiance • Geode • George Wyth Memorial • Green Valley • Gull Point • Honey Creek • Lacey-Keosauqua • Lake Ahquabi • Lake Anita • Lake Darling • Lake Keomah • Lake MacBride • Lake Manawa • Lake of Three Fires • Lake Wapello • Ledges • Lewis and Clark • Maquoketa Caves • Marble Beach • McIntosh Woods • Mines of Spain & E.B. Lyons • Mini-Wakan • Nine Eagles • Okamanpedan • Palisades-Kepler • Pikes Peak • Pikes Point • Pilot Knob • Pine Lake • Pleasant Creek • Prairie Rose • Preparation Canyon • Red Haw • Rice Lake • Rock Creek • Springbrook • Stone • Templar • Trapper's Bay • Twin Lakes • Union Grove • Viking Lake • Volga River • Walnut Woods • Wapsipinicon • Waubonsie • Wildcat Den • Wilson Island
Backbone • Barkley • Gifford • Holst • Loess Hills • Pilot Mound • Shimek • Stephens • White Pine Hollow • Yellow River
A.F. Miller • Ames High Prairie • Anderson Prairie • Behrens Pond and Woodlands • Berry Woods • Bird Hill • Bixby • Bluffton Fir Stand • Brush Creek Canyon • Brushy Creek • Cameron Woods • Casey's Paha • Catfish Creek • Cayler Prairie • Cedar Bluffs • Cedar Hills Sand Prairie • Cheever Lake • Clay Prairie • Claybanks Forest • Cold Water Spring • Crossman Prairie • Decorah Ice Cave • Dinesen Prairie • Doolittle Prairie • Fallen Rock • Fish Farm Mounds • Five Ridge Prairie • Fleming Woods • Fort Atkinson • Freda Haffner Kettlehole • Gitchie Manitou • Hanging Bog • Hardin City Woodland • Hartley Fort • Hayden Prairie • Hoffman Prairie • Indian Bluffs Primitive Area • Indian Fish Trap • Iowa's State Preserves System • Kalsow • Kish-Ke-Kosh Prairie • Lamson Woods • Liska-Stanek Prairie • Little Maquoketa • Malanaphy Springs • Malchow Mounds • Manikowski Prairie • Mann Wilderness Area • Marietta Sand Prairie • Mericle Woods • Merrill A. Stainbrook • Merritt Forest • Montauk • Mossy Glen • Mount Pisgah Cemetery • Mount Talbot • Nestor Stiles Prairie • Ocheyedan Mound • Old State Quarry • Palisades-Downs • Pecan Grove • Pellett Woods • Pilot Grove • Pilot Knob • Retz Woods • Roberts Creek • Rock Creek Island • Rock Island • Roggman Boreal Slopes • Rolling Thunder Prairie • Saint James Lutheran Church • Savage Woods • Searryl's Cave • Sheeder Prairie • Silver Lake Fen • Silvers-Smith Woods • Slinde Mounds • Starr's Cave • Steele Prairie • Stinson Prairie • Strasser Woods • Sylvan Runkel • Toolesboro Mounds • Turin Loess Hills • Turkey River Mounds • White Pine Hollow • Williams Prairie • Wittrock Indian Village • Woodland Mounds • Woodman Hollow • Woodthrush •
County State Parks
(Leased)Bobwhite • Cold Springs • Crystal Lake • Eagle Lake • Echo Valley • Frank A. Gotch • Heery Woods • Lake Cornelia • Lake Icaria • Kearny • Margo Frankel • Mill Creek • Oak Grove • Oakland Mills • Pammel • Sharon Bluffs • Spring Lake • Swan Lake • Three Mile Lake
Categories:- Iowa state preserves
- Protected areas of Winneshiek County, Iowa
- Protected areas of Fillmore County, Minnesota
- Driftless Area
- Caves of Iowa
- Caves of Minnesota
- Limestone caves
- National Natural Landmarks in Iowa
- Protected areas established in 1987
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