A lifetime of exploring Arkansas

[bigcozy]

I haven't introduced myself, posted a couple of times, but wanted to offer you some of my experiences. So, Hi - I am Cozy. I grew up in Arkansas, with school teacher parents, so we spent our summers exploring all over Arkansas. I also had a motorcycle at a young age and covered a lot of ground. I am older than most of you, and got to see things "back in the day" when nobody really cared if you jumped a fence to see something. I wanted to share a few things in abbreviated form for the sake of brevity. Here are some things i think are cool, and some I haven't gotten to explore to my satisfaction.

1. Posted already about Mayberry Inn, had a few wierdo experiences in there.

2. On Hickory Nut Mountain Road, coming out of Crystal Springs, I have experienced three times hearing what I thought were voices while turkey hunting. I later found an old stagecoach route and lots of evidence of a settlement. Pots, pans, bottles, pieces of housing.

3. In Bear, Arkansas, there is a church with a "devils head" on flagstones on each side of the front door. The church hasn't been used in years. I have analog pics, can't get them up electronically.

4. Also in Bear is a small ghost town, covered in Kudsu, and a nice little spring.

5. Spent several nights in Rush, once with my father when I was six years old. We missed our pick up and spent the night in one of the old houses. We would regularly sleep overnight in the old mines. Don't know if it is still there, but there used to be a Studebaker truck inside one of the mines.

6. When I was kid, back in the mid 70s, there were lots of hippies still around. You would often find people living in caves and old houses. That is why we were armed when we did exploring, you didn't know what you would find.

7. Arrowheads were easily found everywhere. I have a friend that picked up a arrowhead in McArthur Park in dowtown LR. There is a place in Scott that you can dig almost anywhere and find them. Gurdon as well, lots of Indian mounds on private land there.

8. Gurdon light, been there, seen it many times. Have a buddy that grew up walking distance from it. He has seen it go inside cars. Its for real.

9. There is a Indian mound very, very close to dowtown LR that is very unique. I was told by a Park Service employee that it looked like it was left just a few years ago. There was a mound, a primitive house, and two dug out canoes. The location is a secret (I don't know where) and can only be reached at certain times of the year.

10. When the water is very low at Wooly Hollow State Park, you can see two huge dug out canoes. Never heard the story on these.

11. In dowtown LR, close to the Jeep dealership, I have a friend that has a duplex. They still have a place to tie off your horses, and inside, there are bullet holes from the Civil War. She has frames around them.

12. I was told by someone that sat on a committee, that the state has an incredible collection of things that have never seen the light of day. Suits of armor, some Spanish (very old), guns, swords and all manor of things.

13. Just off the golf course at Centennial Valley in Conway, there is a small old Indian encampment with a small cistern.

14. A arrowhead found by a friend in Scott, was believed to be made of jade. Obviously that came from a long way away and presents a few questions.

15. I have personally found a number of fossils in northern Faulkner county. I can't access the land and they were too large to carry, but took pictures.


Those are just 15 off the top of my head. I will post more in the future in the hope someone might find them interesting enough to check them out. I am working on some other stuff too, some I will try to share and some I can't for obvious reasons. Questions are welcome.

[Pinwheel]

Are you in the Conway area?

If so, do you want to get coffee sometime?

I love trading exploring stories!

[lolabelle]

Can't wait to hear more!

[m0ridin]

11. In dowtown LR, close to the Jeep dealership, I have a friend that has a duplex. They still have a place to tie off your horses, and inside, there are bullet holes from the Civil War. She has frames around them.

Inside a duplex there are bullet holes from the civil war? I am highly suspicious. The Union did take Little Rock after the Battle Bayou Fourche, and that area certainly was close to several skirmishes (including the Little Rock Arsenal), but I have a hard time believing that there are bullet holes inside of a duplex that probably hasn't been there since 1863.

Do you have any more info/pictures on these bullet holes?

13. Just off the golf course at Centennial Valley in Conway, there is a small old Indian encampment with a small cistern.

I live in Conway, what side of the Golf Course is this located off of? I'll probably take a detour and go by there after work.

Interesting stuff, thanks for the post!

[pinkspider]

i love hearing all these stories!!

and yay more conway people!!! it's so weird to find all this stuff so close to home

[jakethesartech2]

i want to visit bear, arkansas

[bigcozy]

Michelle claims they are from the Civil War, I don't know that any shooting went on in LR. The area was used as a massive hospital during the war. I believe she has some pics of the house back in that era, its a horrible place to live now. There is one story that they executed prisoners against the wall, I doubt that one too. She has a mini ball removed from the wall in a glass case. Could been two drunk guys debating ballistics. I will try to look up the street number so you can look, its been years since I talked to her, I will have to guess but I am pretty sure I remember the building.

I am not sure of the hole on Centennial, but it is the last one past the power line on the right. If you find the power line, walk the cart path until you get to the green on the hole. Take a right up in the woods about 30 yards, and you should find the cistern. Lots of construction up there now, don't know how much has been messed with. It is about three feet across on the ground. I will try to get up there and get some pics, its not that far from me. I considered carrying the pieces of rock out of there to perserve them.

If someone can show me how to post pics from Yahoo maps I would be helping everyone a lot better I am sure. I wouldn't mind getting together. I lost all my pictures in a move five years ago, but I have a handful of pictures I would appreciate if someone could scan for me. I have the Devil's Head church, the fossil of a plant, the ghost town at Bear, and a few others. I am pretty well known in Conway, and very private. Feel free to email me.

A few more:

Where I found the fossils, private land, there is a relative of mine that built a stone cabin that is still partially standing. He built a water resevoir in front of it that is huge and still there. He was barely able to walk and nobody really knows how he built it, he lived there alone for forty years. I have some pics of the remains. They say he read the Bible over and over and you could quote any passage and he could tell you the next verse.

In the early nineties, I lived in the Halter building in dowtown Conway. Back then, the building was all but abandoned, with a few offices upstairs. My apartment was about 6000 sq ft and I paid $110 a month for it. When they shot the movie "Stone Cold" they shot many scenes in my place. There was no AC and no heat.

My uncle used to drop a rope down in Blanchard Caverns before it was open to public, and "party" down in there. They have even preserved some of his grafity he left.

The state of Arkansas owns a functional original Gatling Gun. I don't know if it is at the McArthur musuem now or not, but it dissappeared for many years. When it was donated to the DAR, they didn't want it in the Old State House, so the left it outside in the rain for a couple of decades. Hard to put a price on a Government issue Gatling.

[jakethesartech2]

dude you are COOL!

[m0ridin]

Michelle claims they are from the Civil War, I don't know that any shooting went on in LR. The area was used as a massive hospital during the war. I believe she has some pics of the house back in that era, its a horrible place to live now. There is one story that they executed prisoners against the wall, I doubt that one too. She has a mini ball removed from the wall in a glass case. Could been two drunk guys debating ballistics. I will try to look up the street number so you can look, its been years since I talked to her, I will have to guess but I am pretty sure I remember the building.

Thanks for the follow up! It would be very cool if there was a legitimate wall/foundation from the civil war era that had bullet holes in it.

I'm not a historian, but from what I read of the battle that took place in little rock, the city was a retreat-point for the failed battle that took place east of the city. When the Union army came in the town pretty much surrendered after a few firefights that took place near the Little Rock Arsenal, and there were no mention of prisoner executions, but you never know! Very little documentation exists on the details post-battle.

I am not sure of the hole on Centennial, but it is the last one past the power line on the right. If you find the power line, walk the cart path until you get to the green on the hole. Take a right up in the woods about 30 yards, and you should find the cistern. Lots of construction up there now, don't know how much has been messed with. It is about three feet across on the ground. I will try to get up there and get some pics, its not that far from me. I considered carrying the pieces of rock out of there to perserve them.

Thanks for the tip! I have a pretty good idea of where you're talking about, I may try to head out there tomorrow afternoon or early Saturday and see what's what.

[bigcozy]

The building dowtown appears to be on Scott and 10th street. I am sure Michelle doesn't live there anymore, that was about 7 years ago the last time we talked. I am looking at a yahoo maps pic, and I remember the building looked very reddish. There is a horse tie off in the front and a very, very old iron gate and fence in front. That is probably it. I grew up in LR, lots of interesting stuff there like that.

If someone can show me how to post these map pics I can put them up.

More stuff:


There is a house in Conway close to the courthouse that has a horse tie off in front of it, I will try to find it.

At one time all the electricity in Conway was powered by a single steam engine. It can be seen restored at Conway Corporation. Back in the 80s that part of the building was more or less abandoned and the steam engine was in parts. Up until the mid 70s, the power came from gigantic Nordberg Marine diesels. Diesel fuel powered all the electrical needs of Conway. Where Conway Corporation offices are now, is on top of huge diesel fuel tanks.

There is a house on the East side of Toadsuck on the river bluffs that has a helicopter and heli-pad. It also has a golf green that is easy to spot on Yahoo maps.

[m0ridin]

All right, I took a small trip today to see if I could locate this cistern you mentioned, but I'm not sure if I've got the right location.

Here is the view from the last hole on the course under the main power lines before they start heading up a large hill. Note that the view is looking south onto the golf course/road:



This is the view up the hill from the edge of the hole, standing on the paved cart-path (there is some random golf cart halfway up the hill.. weird):



That last picture is where I started my hike up the trail along the power lines. The woods to the right (east) start out very thin since the road runs along side it, the woods to the left also split into a different power-line trail:



Is it anywhere close to this?

There were some kids on a golf cart close to the side of the road when I got there, they had obviously just come down from the trail so I pulled over and asked them a few questions.

They seemed a little afraid at first (I guess they thought I was going to yell at them), but they opened up a bit and told me they could get to a water-tower from up there, and then mentioned something about an old building but I wasn't quite clear. I thanked them and they drove off in their golf cart (not the one in the pictures).

I hiked up the trail along the main power lines and scanned the treeline to the east and west, but didn't see anything obvious. There are several ATV-type trails that split off from the main power lines along the way up, but my daylight was limited so I just made it to the top without taking any detours today.

The view from the top was pretty cool, and there were even more trails at the top worth exploring sometime.



I didn't see any buildings or water-towers, but this was a short trip. I'll probably go back soon and take a better look around.. times like this I wish I had an ATV

[bigcozy]

moridin, I apologize for not describing this better. The green you are looking at is not a green for a hole, it is a practice green. The hole I was talking about is well past the power line. It used to be 13, but I haven't played it in a while.

You would stay on the court path at the foot of the power line, and walk due west. This will take you to another hole past the tree line. That is the hole and the green I was talking about.

I cannot figure how to post a map on here, that would make it clear. Since you tried this, I will try to get out this week and find it and take some pics. I will include pics that will show you how to get there.

If found it 21 years ago before the golf course was there. Heard about it, and found it while dove hunting.

Be very careful around there, lots of deer and people deer hunt right where you were.

[m0ridin]

moridin, I apologize for not describing this better. The green you are looking at is not a green for a hole, it is a practice green. The hole I was talking about is well past the power line. It used to be 13, but I haven't played it in a while.

You would stay on the court path at the foot of the power line, and walk due west. This will take you to another hole past the tree line. That is the hole and the green I was talking about.

I cannot figure how to post a map on here, that would make it clear. Since you tried this, I will try to get out this week and find it and take some pics. I will include pics that will show you how to get there.

If found it 21 years ago before the golf course was there. Heard about it, and found it while dove hunting.

Be very careful around there, lots of deer and people deer hunt right where you were.

Hey no problem man, I don't know jack about golf!

It was a fun hike and I plan to revisit just to explore around there.

That clears things up a bit, now I know where the cart-path is, I can walk west down it and be closer to your location.

They are doing a lot of construction, but I don't think anything west of the power lines has been messed with too much.

Wish I could help you out with maps, I mainly use Google maps and there's no way to embed it in these forums easily (without saving it as an image or something first).

You can link to them pretty easily though:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=35.1 ... 2&t=h&z=16

Just use the tags

Code: Select all

[url]http://www.whatever.com[/url]

And stick the link that google maps or whoever you use provides to you.

[Pinwheel]

Any luck on that area by the Golf course?

I am tempted to go out tomorrow.

[jakethesartech2]

can you tell me the where abouts of the abandonded church in Bear?