Ouachita mountain mines

[rockhound92]

So I'm trying to do my contribution, there may not be many caves except for a couple, but thousands of mines are all over the Ouachita mountains. Most aren't closed unless really unstable or are filled with water. The forest service boys don't care to much if you go in them, since a lot of rockhounders are in and out of those places all the time collecting. There is a cave in hot springs at a park with a tank on it around grand central avenue. It's supposed to have a legend behind about 7 sacred caves in the valley of the vapors. So it may be true, you just go to find the other six lol. So that I guess that's my contribution I'm pretty new to all this and try to get my foot in the door here. If anybody wants to host a meet during cooling weather we can all spends days roaming in and out of mines. One good place to start is Bemis hill in pike county.

[s.sisco]

www.manataka.org/page2.html

[rockhound92]

www.manataka.org/page2.html

Yeah I read the article, so there may be a seed of truth to the whole story. So it could be plausible, if there was another six caves, they probable were destroyed from the building of bathhouses. Another article on the web talks about there was another cave like place on bathhouse row, but it was destroyed during the building of the bathhouses. Anyway the article talks about a Mr. dale who said it was there but it eventually was blasted away. the article said Mr.. dale may have never existed because they didn't see a dale turn up in census and other documents in the 1800's.

[s.sisco]

I believe it. But I'm sure it was destroyed. It sounded like a really awesome place. Wish it was still like that. Could you imagine seeing that stuff I don't know if I would ever leave

[gimpface]

The ones I've seen were all surface pits, but I've heard rumors of some underground ones in the same areas I frequent.

[rockhound92]

What area do you frequent? Go to Sevier county.

[gimpface]

Every couple of years I go rockhounding in Montgomery County. Where is Sevier county in relation to that?

[rockhound92]

Southwest of Montgomery county in the northern part of Sevier county. For the best rockhounding in the state you can draw a 50 mile radius circle around the city of Hot Springs, the best place you can go is magnet cove. Also the mines where old antimony mines.

[Wedge]

What area do you frequent? Go to Sevier county.

Sevier County Arkansas? What about it?

[rockhound92]

There is supposed be a lot of old mines going underground in Sevier county.

[ropingk]

are they actually safe to enter???? dying in a cave in really blows

[rockhound92]

I'm not sure, I've only really read on them and I haven't seen any post on them on this website or any others. I have a feeling they may not be well known to very many people.

[bgould]

There is a bit of karst in Little River and Sevier Counties, but if there are any actual caves nobody's sharing. Near the ville of "Cerrogordo," just south of the Little River on the state line there is reputed to be old silver mines, hidden Spanish gold... the usual stuff. I stooged around in the archives at Old Washington some years ago researching the area and my impression was that the articles were 1920s-30s versions of click-bait. Still, if anybody knows anything...

[rockhound92]

There is a bit of karst in Little River and Sevier Counties, but if there are any actual caves nobody's sharing. Near the ville of "Cerrogordo," just south of the Little River on the state line there is reputed to be old silver mines, hidden Spanish gold... the usual stuff. I stooged around in the archives at Old Washington some years ago researching the area and my impression was that the articles were 1920s-30s versions of click-bait. Still, if anybody knows anything...

Yeah I couldn't find much on that but apparently there are caves around there. I doubt the spanish ever recorved enough silver anywhere arkansas, and certanily no gold has been found in paying quantities.

[Wedge]

No one is going to find much in SW AR as far as caves go. There were some mines, but lakes were constructed that put them under water. Most of the area is surface mines for things like gravel.

Other than the Ouachita mountain range, there is very little bedrock even exposed once getting as far SW as Sevier and Little River counties. I did find one interesting depression with a small hole at the surface, several years ago. I marked it by GPS but just haven't been back. The area is just not conducive to caves, it's nothing like NW AR.

I have been in several mines in the Ouachita mountains, but it was a long time ago and I have no idea where they are at. These were not the well known ones, but ones far off beaten paths. I went through Albert Pike a few weeks ago, and that place is being reclaimed by nature except for the day use area.

Now, there are a lot of old structures and "forgotten" cemeteries. I know of one cemetery with Civil War memorials and there are some neat concrete structures in the woods at White Cliffs, and one old car upside down on the river bank that has been there for decades. The only way to see the car is by boat or a pretty touchy climb down. Sevier county used to be much larger before it was split to make other counties and there are some historic places and buildings and if anyone goes through Lockesburg, the hardware store there is worth just stopping in to have a peek as it's pretty old and the guy running has been for a very long time. It's surprising how many things he has in there.

OK Arkansas. I haven't checked it out, but OK was a town built by the OK Cement Company just for its workers near where Millwood Lake is. There may be some historic structures there.