On the Hunt

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With the startling news that Morel Mushrooms were already up in the area (a neighbor down the road found 49 this morning), we set out expectantly on a mushroom expedition. This is way early for Morels, but spring has come several weeks early this year.

And we found some interesting items, just no mushrooms. I like to think of the hollow as nearly pristine, but there are certainly signs of humans here and there. Today I found an object in the woods that the veteran mechanic that was mushroom hunting with me identified as the coil for an old one-cylinder engine, probably dating from the 1920s. It was up a distance on the side of the hill. Someone must have thrown it for it to get there.

We also stumbled upon the first two terrapins, or box turtles, I’ve seen out this year. One was still muddy from digging itself out of its winter burrow.

Box Turtle Terrapin Ozark Eureka Springs ArkansasBox Turtle Terrapin Ozark Eureka Springs Arkansas Hollow

 

Ozark Mountain High

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The goal of today’s expedition was to locate the historic community of High, Arkansas. In 1907, a post office was established there by Fred High, who was postmaster for 35 years. I read that item in his book Forty-Three Years for Uncle Sam (copyright 1949.) He says that his Grandfather High was Dutch and came to the United States in about 1756 and eventually settled in this part of Carroll County on Indian Creek.

My specific goal was to find the High Cemetery, where my Great-Uncle Franklin Wolfinbarger (1933-2008) is buried. I’d never been there and all I knew was that the High Cemetery is located on County Road 422.

 Starting on the western end of County Road 422, I found the High Church and Cemetery about a mile and a half into the journey, just a short ways after crossing Indian Creek (elevation about 1020 feet, low point on County Road 422.)

The High Cemetery is sizeable for a rural Ozarks cemetery, with over 400 internments. Many of Carroll County’s old families are buried there, families with names like Williams, Biggerstaff, Ray, and, of course, High. The oldest internment I can find reference to is John High (1788-1861).

 In the center of this pretty cemetery is a grove of massive cedars.

I was at the cemetery for nearly an hour and not a single vehicle drove by on the gravel road.

Going east from the High Cemetery on County Road 422, I unexpectedly found the old New Salem School. The only information I can find about it is that the New Salem community was an early settlement in Carroll County, Arkansas.

Why does it say “NO PONE” on the New Salem School sign?

After passing the school, the road climbs up between two hills to its highest point of 1461 feet elevation before ending a couple of miles later.

County Road 422 stretches about seven miles across north central Carroll County joining Arkansas State Highway 221 with Arkansas State Highway 21. Driving the length of this road, I only met one other vehicle, a pickup that stopped short and let me pass in a narrow spot.

A note on today’s journey: my mediocre photography skills are sometimes made better by my handy little Olympus camera. Well, it is missing, so I had to use cell phone pictures. If you find my camera, please let me know.

Tea Kettle Falls

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Exactly twelve miles from the hollow (by road) in the McIlroy-Madison County Wildlife Management Area is the unique Tea Kettle Falls. Besides being rather high, the waterfall flows through a sizeable hole worn through the limestone bluff.

These two photographs are courtesy of Barbara Mourglia of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Tea Kettle Falls drains Kettle Hollow and then flows into Warm Fork Creek, which then flows into Rockhouse Creek and the Kings River.

This north side of Warm Fork Creek is a long line of massive bluffs offering beautiful views. 

This Bing Bird’s Eye View shows the area’s terrain.

Snow on the Pumpkin

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Snow on the Pumpkin Ozark Arkansas Eureka Springs

Woke up to a little bit of snow on the ground this morning – first of the season. Not enough to worry about except for where it melted, refroze and caused traffic accidents on area roads. Ice is ice and causes more problems in the Ozarks than snow normally does.

When I attended college in the Arkansas River Valley just south of the Ozark hills, it taught me how one’s view of weather is so relative. Russellville, Arkansas has a much milder winter than we do here in the north Arkansas Ozarks. Before attending college, I had just moved back from Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany so the mild winters seemed even milder still. But one day while crossing the Arkansas Tech University campus in the spitting snow, I heard a Texan say, “When I moved to ATU, I didn’t know I was moving to the Arctic.” I had an uncle from Mississippi that said north Arkansas was the coldest place on earth. And so it goes. Retirees from Omaha, Nebraska laugh at our snowfalls, while denizens of Sault Ste Marie winter in Nebraska for the pleasant weather. Sault Ste Marie can receive 17 feet of snow in a single winter.

Snow Bird Tracks Ozark Hills Arkansas Eureka Springs

 

The Barren Landscape of a Rock Quarry

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I’ve not been to the State of Wyoming, but I’ve read fiction set there, and these photographs of a local Ozarkian rock quarry is how I picture it. Wyoming is a huge state, I know, so perhaps these pictures do not resembe anyplace in Wyoming, not even the rock quarries.

Eureka Springs Arkansas Ozark Hills Rock Quarry

Weems Eureka Springs Arkansas Rock Quarry