[lobosolitario]

Clark County - Well, my archeologist friend and I finally got out-and-about today. Our primary objective was to map another segment of the old Military Road west of Arkadelphia. We know from historical records that during the Indian Removal the Chickasaw, and some of the Choctaw, traveled this road to southeast Oklahoma. It was kinda sad to stand there looking at the washed out road bed through those pines and imagine those people plodding along, and they had already traveled so far and still had a long way to go.


After we complete our primary objective we always hit the back roads to see if we can find any old home sites so we can GPS their location, or flakes where the Indians made their stone tools. My friend is like a bird dog looking for the flakes. As we drive along, if the terrain is right and the rut isn't covered with grass/weeds, he will look out his side window and can see a flake in the gravel. And sure enough he did that today. He saw one flake so he stopped the truck and we got out, searched the road, and it was what we call a "workshop" where they had made their tools. We found several artifacts.


We also found that the timber company had sowed wild flower seeds all along both sides of those roads. They were beautiful yellow patches and did really shine in that bright sun. I took several photos and tried to attach one here but C-D said it was too big and could not download it. I'll try to resize it and post it later. Sor' 'bout dat

[latunafish]

Thanks for sharing that report, sounds like an enjoyable day!

I drove 4 hours to sit at a desk for 2 hours today.

[lobosolitario]

Originally Posted by latunafish

Thanks for sharing that report, sounds like an enjoyable day!

I drove 4 hours to sit at a desk for 2 hours today.

Four hours for two ! I remember those long ago days, but "never more"

[lobosolitario]

Originally Posted by lobosolitario

Clark County - Well, my archeologist friend and I finally got out-and-about today. Our primary objective was to map another segment of the old Military Road west of Arkadelphia. We know from historical records that during the Indian Removal the Chickasaw, and some of the Choctaw, traveled this road to southeast Oklahoma. It was kinda sad to stand there looking at the washed out road bed through those pines and imagine those people plodding along, and they had already traveled so far and still had a long way to go.


After we complete our primary objective we always hit the back roads to see if we can find any old home sites so we can GPS their location, or flakes where the Indians made their stone tools. My friend is like a bird dog looking for the flakes. As we drive along, if the terrain is right and the rut isn't covered with grass/weeds, he will look out his side window and can see a flake in the gravel. And sure enough he did that today. He saw one flake so he stopped the truck and we got out, searched the road, and it was what we call a "workshop" where they had made their tools. We found several artifacts.


We also found that the timber company had sowed wild flower seeds all along both sides of those roads. They were beautiful yellow patches and did really shine in that bright sun. I took several photos and tried to attach one here but C-D said it was too big and could not download it. I'll try to resize it and post it later. Sor' 'bout dat

Here are photos of the flowers but when I resized them (required by C-D) they lost lots of detail but you can see what I was talking about.

[Luvvarkansas]

Originally Posted by lobosolitario

Here are photos of the flowers but when I resized them (required by C-D) they lost lots of detail but you can see what I was talking about.

I have those in my "semi-wild" flower bed out at the end of my driveway...some of my favorite wildflowers.

[lobosolitario]

Help, from you hiker, backpacker, boon-dockers. Have any of you seen this tree blaze/mark before. I had an archeology contract with the Ouachita National Forest and found this mark on a tree on a narrow ridge top in Montgomery County. There was evidence of an old trail there so I suspected it was a trail marker but have never been able to ID it's meaning. From the overgrowth over the old scar I would guesstimate it was hacked at least in the 1960s, or perhaps before that. Any help/thoughts will be appreciated.


The photo is kinda dark, but it has two, side-by-side, vertical, hash marks.

[Old Fossil]

Nathan, Pike County - While searching for the Ione Cemetery (although we didn't know it's name at that time), we were directed to this cemetery near downtown Nathan. There were several interesting tombstones/monuments, but this group caught my eye, and imagination. The husbands tombstone is commercial made but his two wives tombstones are home made which brings up these questions since there are no dates on the wives markers. Did the wives die first and these home made markers are all the husband could afford, or did the husband die first and the wives home made markers were all the family could afford? I'm sure someone in the community knows but we did not try to find the answer.
Oh, the three markers are lined up north/south with the wives markers on the north side of the husband.

[Hollynla]

Originally Posted by Old Fossil

Nathan, Pike County - While searching for the Ione Cemetery (although we didn't know it's name at that time), we were directed to this cemetery near downtown Nathan. There were several interesting tombstones/monuments, but this group caught my eye, and imagination. The husbands tombstone is commercial made but his two wives tombstones are home made which brings up these questions since there are no dates on the wives markers. Did the wives die first and these home made markers are all the husband could afford, or did the husband die first and the wives home made markers were all the family could afford? I'm sure someone in the community knows but we did not try to find the answer.
Oh, the three markers are lined up north/south with the wives markers on the north side of the husband.

Hmmm, this is interesting. So it's two different homemade markers for the wives but one would've had to have been an x wife or she died before him, making him a widow then he remarried. I wouldn't think they would bury an x wife and label her marker as his wife if they were divorced so I'm gonna guess the first wife died before him, then he remarried.

[Old Fossil]

Originally Posted by Hollynla

Hmmm, this is interesting. So it's two different homemade markers for the wives but one would've had to have been an x wife or she died before him, making him a widow then he remarried. I wouldn't think they would bury an x wife and label her marker as his wife if they were divorced so I'm gonna guess the first wife died before him, then he remarried.

I agree

[prerunner1982]

Or maybe he was a brave man and just had two wives? If so, he probably died first.