[Old Fossil]

Well, we ventured back into east Pike County to visit the cinnabar mines again yesterday. I have gotten a 1932 map that shows some mines on the south end of Bemis Hill that we didn't know about so we planned to explore, map, take photos, and GPS some of the mines we had visited before, then explore the new area. No problem to the top of the mountain but once there we found dead trees across the road down the ridge top so we walked in and did our thing then went to the other mountain and drove along a trail down the ridge top. Found one dead tree, snaked it out of the way and moved on to a better road down the mountain. That's when the trouble started with down pines (from the ice a couple weeks ago) across the road. We knew we couldn't back-track because going down the mountain top we had dragged over a rock ledge and knew we couldn't get across it going back up slope. So we had no choice but to drag the trees out of the road, and that's "trees" with a big "S"! I lost count of how many but there was a bunch, and didn't take time to take photos. I just wanted out of there! By then we had run out of time and decided to go to Delight and Mom's Diner with our traditional late lunch. We got to the county road and turned south and in about 100 meters we could see some distance ahead and saw down pines for a long way and decided to turn back and go to Arkadelphia. We had to move only one pine and we were finally on our way. I forgot to mention we broken our tow rope but got it tied together and it worked.

The Attached photos are of a feature we found on the side of the mountain near the mines. It is solid concrete, two meters high, and 30 centimeters square. It appears to have been poured against a board wall or into a board form. It's on a concrete slab about 20 X 10 meters in size. There is a similar one about 50 meters south. We have no idea what they were used for.

[Old Fossil]

I wrote above there was another concrete slab about 50 meters from the one that had the concrete post that was shown. This is on that referred to slab, and there leaning up against a sapling is this object. It is very old, made of oak, and has metal reinforcement is places. It is interesting, to me, that two parallel timbers have concave configurations. It is as though it was made to hold a barrel type object. As usual I have no clue for what it was made. The orange-black photo stick is two meters long.

[prerunner1982]

Very interesting.. by the placement of the slab and the barrel holder I would guess that the barrel fed/fueled something that was mounted or sat on the slab. Enjoy the pictures as always.

[Old Fossil]

Originally Posted by prerunner1982

Very interesting.. by the placement of the slab and the barrel holder I would guess that the barrel fed/fueled something that was mounted or sat on the slab. Enjoy the pictures as always.

You could be right. The concavity in the "barrel holder" is bigger than for a 55 gallon drum, and though there is a concrete pier with anchor bolts in the top (you can see part of it in one of the photos), the two do not match up. This is the only wood object we have found in the mine area except a "powder house" on top of a nearby mountain. Some times I think it was brought in from somewhere else, but it would have been lots of trouble to get it up the steep slope, from the road, to this point. As often happens, we end the day with more questions than answers .

[Old Fossil]

This brick was the only one on these two slabs I wrote about above. The bolt is in the top of the concrete pier near the wood object and is unusual in that it has no threads. It is common to find anchor bolts in top of such piers, but all the others had threads and we assume they are anchor bolts.

[prerunner1982]

I would assume (I am doing a lot of that...) that the "bolt" is more of a centering pin of some sort. The mystery continues....

[saxondale351]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

Ooops, paint my face red >of course that was a diamondback rattler I posted earlier I''m surprised no one called my hand on it There are six poisonous snakes in AR; Three rattlers - Pygmy, timber, and diamondback, plus cottonmouth, copperhead, and coral. The coral is less common and normally in south AR but is migrating north.

In the Attached photo, if you look closely behind the white stick, you can see the coiled snake we photographed until he got tired of posing. If you look even more closely, near the center of the photo, you can see his head and his erect "S" posture which means he is ready to strike.

I carry a shot shell in my 9mm and would have killed it. I have ran over a few and old retired forrest service guy did not like it, he said they are rare in AR. I am fixing to make them more rare. LMAO. I see em I kill em. I know I will get the usual suspects who say leave em alone. Not going to happen. I killed 6 copperhead near my home one afternoon. I also bought a gallon of snake glue to make traps. I just pick up the trap when its got one in it and kill it and toss it in the garbage.

[Old Fossil]

Originally Posted by prerunner1982

I would assume (I am doing a lot of that...) that the "bolt" is more of a centering pin of some sort. The mystery continues....

Good point, but there is one in each corner as usually found with anchor bolts. I looked closely to see if it had been cut off with a torch, but doesn't seem to be .

[Old Fossil]

Originally Posted by saxondale351

I carry a shot shell in my 9mm and would have killed it. I have ran over a few and old retired forrest service guy did not like it, he said they are rare in AR. I am fixing to make them more rare. LMAO. I see em I kill em. I know I will get the usual suspects who say leave em alone. Not going to happen. I killed 6 copperhead near my home one afternoon. I also bought a gallon of snake glue to make traps. I just pick up the trap when its got one in it and kill it and toss it in the garbage.

You sound like my wife ; "The only good snake is a dead snake!" She doesn't even like snake photos and has never seen this one.

[Old Fossil]

This is on the next mountain north and in the main cinnabar mine area called Bemis Hill in east Pike County. Arkansas Slim posted several photos of these mines. I had an archeology contract with the Ouachita National Forest GPS locating, photographing, and mapping the abandoned mines on one Ranger District of the ONF. We documented many shafts but I never saw water in any of them. Here at Bemis Hill most of them have water, as the one in the Attached photo has. We don't know how deep any of them are, but I interviewed a man who worked in them a few miles east, in Clark County, and he said most of them were 150 feet or more. I have Attached a drawn cross section of one which is on Bemis Hill, but the Geological Commission report didn't say which one. There are dozens of these on this half mile long mountain top plus many trenches and tunnels.