Hail and Faye Bryant
When true love comes along, some people drop everything and plunge in head first. Such is the story of Hail and Faye Bryant. The two were dating other people when they met in their late teens – Hail was an engineering student graduating in a year from the University of Arkansas and Faye was a 17-year-old farmer’s daughter. They threw caution to the wind and began dating, and quickly realized they were meant for each other. Hail quit his engineering program to move back to Batesville and marry Faye “…for fear that [she] would get away”.
Hail spent countless childhood hours exploring caves in Salado Creek. As an adult, he teamed up with several other locals looking for an entrance to a natural cave system in Stone County. After a few failed attempts, their explorations met a major find – over 10 miles of caverns later described as the Dripstone Trail. Hail made it his goal to bring worldwide attention to these springs, and after visiting Washington, D.C. and having information pertaining to the caves printed in Life Magazine, that idea became reality. With the sheer volume of new caverns discovered by this amateur spelunking team, the original name of HalfMile Cave needed updating, and was subsequently relabeled as Blanchard Springs.
Faye’s passion for collecting historic bottles was a boon for OIRM when she donated the extensive collection to us. A small example of her collection of antique bottles is currently on display in Old Independence Regional Museum’s Arkansas Finds exhibit highlighting archeology finds in our local area. The chosen bottles represent several bottling companies in and around Batesville, including Batesville Bottling Works, the Ozark Dewdrop Soda Company, and an Orange Crush bottle bottled in Batesville. Come view this collection along with other phenomenal finds in our newest exhibit.
