Bull Creek Structures

[RedRook]

I found a structure right next to Mark Twain Forest on Bull Creek that is in the middle of nowhere.

Map

My best guess is that it is an abandoned barn, but it looks like there might be some other man made structures here.

[RedRook]

And here's another similar structure right here with what looks like a deteriorated paved water crossing nearby:

36°51'7.25"N 93°10'46.43"W
Map

Not to mention there are supposed to be two caves near this stretch of Bull Creek. It would be interesting to check some of this out on a float trip later.

[RedRook]

This place looks complicated as far as what is occupied and what is not so clear.

36°51'1.10"N 93° 9'14.69"W

Map

[gimpface]

While I wholeheartedly approve of checking things out via float trip, the creek isn't all that deep around those parts. If you catch it after a few days of rain it might be a decent float.

[RedRook]

Yeah, I'll wait for higher water and warmer days. I would plan to spend most of the day walking. If the water isn't deep enough to work with, well then I'm just carrying 20 pounds of inflatable boat for no reason. It's amazingly light. It just takes up a whole pack in bulk with paddles strapped to the outside.

[jammer_smith]

I have been eyeballing that exact stretch of creek. It's on my "first warm weekend" list. I even have a little map made where I tried to plot out apx. how far the walk is.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... R9mpZyAVzc

It is also worth noting that this area is directly across the creek from Busiek. So if you wanted to park at Busiek and add an extra two miles or so to the walk, then you could just hike to the far back end of the park and hop the creek and be right there.

[jammer_smith]

Also, watch out for stumbling on a Meth lab. I've come across two of them while just out walking around in remote places, never like a large operation, just a small like back-pack lab, and both I've come across have seemed long abandoned.

Still, it's a very un-nerving feeling to be out walking around at night with your flashlight and to stumble across what you at first think is where some teenagers have been making soda-bottle bombs to then notice the massive pile of empty sinus medication packages and feel suddenly very unprotected and very unsafe.

Even though your concious brain realizes there is a thick layer of dust on everything and this lab is old, your lizard brain is screaming "danger" and telling you to get out of there.

[jammer_smith]

Also, here, seems to be a whole homestead thingy, abandoned for some time:
36.889020, -92.942360

[jammer_smith]

And another:
36.856944, -92.998445

Here is a nifty resource to tell whether or not that plot of land is forest land or private. If it's green, you have every right to tromp all over it. If not, you gots to be sneaky.

http://apps.fs.fed.us/fsmapviewer/index ... brance.xml

[RedRook]

I'm half way wondering if some of these are little hunting cabins. Some of that land is privately owned and some is for sale. All the land that isn't for sale seems to be owned by people living closer to Springfield. It's kind of crazy how much private land is in a National Forest like that.

I haven't run into drug labs yet, or maybe I just thought they were piles of trash. I've seen strange things around buildings though. I've seen mobile homes with holes in the side of the walls with no road nearby, and there still were people sitting out front. I've seen a hunting dog training compound with diesel generators about 10 miles from the nearest dirt road and 30 miles from the nearest paved road. It was being run by war vets that just wanted to live off the grid. I've been stationed in a small radio relay station 120 miles out from a military base and 30 miles from the nearest road. The antenna was small enough, you might not realize it was military. I've learned that even remote buildings aren't always abandoned.

The weirdest thing of all was in the Appalachian Mountains. I had this guy in camo I swear was following me, because we kept coming in eye sight of each other. He never got too close, and he wasn't carrying a pack or a weapon, so I wasn't too worried. It was just a little unnerving to see the same guy multiple times when he was the only other human around. I assume he was living out there, because you don't normally travel that far out without carrying at least food and water.

[jammer_smith]

Yeah, I would imagine some of them are definitely hunting cabins. No way there wouldn't be any.

Weirdest exploration encounter I've ever come across was when I was exploring an abandoned livestock auction complex. You can actually see it on the map here: 36.672737, -91.740665

There is much less of it left now than there was when I explored it. It's been abandoned since the early 90s. There were papers and receipts and stuff still in the office and the most recent date I could find on anything was 92', so pretty good bet that's when it went under. So this was in, let's see, 2005 that I was exploring it, so It's been abandoned for more than a decade.

I was poking around, and it was all pretty typical abandoned place stuff, old mouse chewed papers and furniture with mold all over it and water leaking down all over the place. So I go check out the bathroom, it's a larger public bathroom, like what you'd find in a school or grocery store, couple of urinals, 3 stalls. And in the bathroom, and in the bathroom is a refrigerator, strange, and also the refrigerator was running....also very strange.

At first I was like "No way this place still has power" so I flipped the bathroom light switch and nothing happened. I go check the fridge. In the freezer is nothing. In the fridge part are several small injection bottles of clear liquid. I am talking about the kind of glass bottles that have the little rubber seal on top so you can stick a syringe in and draw out a certain amount. I wish I had written down or remember the name what was on the label, but I didn't, so I don't know what was in them. They didn't look old, it all looked very new and clean.

So, my first instinct was that someone was hiding drugs or illegal pharmaceuticals in there, so I left. In retrospect, that seems like suck a stupid place to put something like that, but it also seems weird that the stock auction place would keep pharmaceuticals on hand, that they would store them in the men's room in an unlocked fridge, that the fridge would still be running 10 years later, would have power, and that the interior would seem so clean.

So I have no idea what was going on there, the nefarious drug cache theory doesn't really make sense, but neither do the alternatives I can think of.

[RedRook]

Yeah, I know Bannister Mall had an issue before they tore it down. I heard second hand from a friend who is a cop that they found a small attempt to grow Marijuana in the building. Surprisingly the grow lamps were using the outlets in the recently closed mall. Maybe the power company isn't perfect at keeping track of where their power is going to, or maybe the head of Cerner just owns too many buildings to keep track of all his electricity bills. It wouldn't surprise me if something as big as a utility made mistakes often. In a place with leaks, you don't know how many fuses blew, so it's possible for the power to be on, but the lights not to get power.

[jammer_smith]

Went out there today and saw lots of neat stuff. The building you first posted about is an old school house that says 1850 on the sign, it appears to be maintained as a cabin for floaters, hikers, and horseback riders to camp in. No vehicle access accept 4 wheelers.

[jammer_smith]

A little additional research says that enterprise school was the second school founded in Christian County, opened in 1850 and last class was 1908.

[RedRook]

Awesome. I wish I had more time to get out this weekend. I'm probably going to try for something closer tomorrow. Do you post pictures anywhere?