[ArkansasSlim]

This was an annual sight in our front yard near Malvern, before we moved to L.R.

[ArkansasSlim]

We call this "Maya in the Athens". We accidently saw it on the side of a mountain through the trees and underbrush, and from a distance it does look like a Maya temple. When we checked it out we found it was part of a cinnabar (mercury) smelter. It is in west Clark County and this photo was taken after we got the brush cleared away so we could map and document the entire smelter site.

[ArkansasSlim]

Shawmut was a sawmill town on the east edge of Pike County. When the mill shut down about 1912 the community continued to hold it's own as a farming community, then in the 1930s cinnabar was discovered in the mountains north of town and gave it another boost, but after that, it slowly dried up until there was not much left by the 1940s. At it's peak there was a post office, grocery store, several other businesses, two railroad depots, and a hotel. Attached is the post office in the 1930s, 1973, and today. Time marches on.

[ArkansasSlim]

This is a Civil War tombstone and a "rubbing" so it can be read. We did not deface the tombstone. It is from an unusual abandoned cemetery now in the City Limits of Hot Springs, but when it was being used was out in the boonies. This and one other were the only markers and I have posted the names and other data on every genealogy site I know but have had no positive responses. I am sure these two men are a missing "branch" on someones family tree.

[ArkansasSlim]

Here an archeology crew is taking a break in a cave that was quarried out by the Indians a couple thousand years ago. The rock is novaculite, their rock of choice in this area for their stone tools. I am standing outside the cave, in the white hard hat, leaning on my photo stick to keep from sliding off the side of the mountain. The space between the cave and the rock outcrop behind me was once solid rock which they quarried away and the quarry debris goes about 100 meters down the side of the mountain. This quarry is on Leader Mountain, the mountain that runs west from the Ouachita National Forest Albert Pike Recreation Area. The whole mountain top and south side of it's crest is heavily quarried.

[ArkansasSlim]

This is a small (12 graves) mountain top pioneer cemetery that was discovered after a forest fire on the Ouachita National Forest in southwest Polk County. Quite a bit of history has been written about the cemetery and it's occupants but had not been officially located and documented until after the fire.

[ArkansasSlim]

When a large portion of west central Arkansas was designated a national forest in the early 1900s, it was named the Arkansas National Forest and its headquarters was in Mena. In 1927 the name was changed to Ouachita National Forest and later the headquarters was moved to Hot Springs. Fires were always a problem, both caused by lightning and set by people, so they realized there must be a way to better locate them and started building fire towers. The CCC built many towers during their short time but prior to that there were many crude efforts made to satisfy the need. Attached is one expedient method that was used more often than most people knew about. The best we can figure out, this tower was on Blakley Mountain west of Hot Springs.

[ArkansasSlim]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

When a large portion of west central Arkansas was designated a national forest in the early 1900s, it was named the Arkansas National Forest and its headquarters was in Mena. In 1927 the name was changed to Ouachita National Forest and later the headquarters was moved to Hot Springs. Fires were always a problem, both caused by lightning and set by people, so they realized there must be a way to better locate them and started building fire towers. The CCC built many towers during their short time but prior to that there were many crude efforts made to satisfy the need. Attached is one expedient method that was used more often than most people knew about. The best we can figure out, this tower was on Blakley Mountain west of Hot Springs.

Well I didn't click something correctly and the photo didn't upload. I'll try it again.

[ArkansasSlim]

This tombstone is in a small cemetery east of Gurdon, Clark County, and is in the vicinity of the "Gurdon Ghost Lights". Of the almost 1,000 tombstones I have seen in my archeology work, the most intriguing had been the child's grave at my Posting #16, until now. This one in now on top of my list. Just think, this lady lived through four wars and saw the start of the fifth!

[Dr. Foosball]

Isn't that six wars? Civil, Spanish-American, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam. I guess she was too young to really count the Civil.

It is amazing to think that a black lady born into slavery was able to live over 100 years. I'll never make it that long.