The hymn tune “Beach Spring” is often sung during Lent. This shape-note hymn was first published in 1835 by William Walker, who allegedly named it after Beech Spring Baptist Church in Kentucky.
It seems that the church was surrounded by beech trees.
But due to a spelling error, "beech" (with an "e") became "beach" (with an "a"), like a sandy shoreline.
Some hymnals still use the original name, but I prefer "Beach Spring" because it reminds me of the springs that appear along Lake Michigan beaches this time of year.
Technically, these beach springs are “seeps.”
During the last Ice Age, glaciers deposited moraines — hills made of rocks, soil and debris — along what is now our lakeshore. Sand dunes eventually covered these hills. Permeable sand and gravel allows melting snow and rain water to percolate until it reaches an impermeable layer, where it then resurfaces as a seep.
Due to natural underground formations, these seeps tend to appear in the same places every year.
Some are so predictable that locals have given them names. In Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, there is a seep known as “Hymn Beach Spring.”
