Sunday, October 4, 2015
Pine Buff, Arkansas

Author's Note:

Toward the end of October back in 2013, I attended a reunion of classmates from Fort Smith, Arkansas, atop Petit Jean Mountain in central Arkansas.  The Arkansas Department of Parks and Recreation operates a first class park on the mountain, and that’s where we were.  At the conclusion of the reunion, with a nice bucketful of time on my hands, I decided to explore the bottom of the mountain, having roamed around the top on several occasions.

The Arkansas River follows the base of the mountain on the northeast side.  I found a road that generally followed the trace of the river and mountain base.  Though the road terminated on some private property, I discovered the unique remains of an old barn and a cooperative young white tail deer buck while traversing its gravel surface.  Today we are revisiting both.  The barn is below and a link to the deer is below the barn story.

Thanks,
       Joe Dempsey 

Down the Bore

As you look at the lonesome roof right down the bore, it appears to have had the old tablecloth trick pulled on it.  Time to scratch the noggin some more.

A Mystery that May Never Be Solved

First Published on Sunday, October 27, 2013
Pine Buff, Arkansas

I scrambled and scratched my way through some nicely thorned, wait-a-minute-vines to set up the tripod in an advantageous position, but then decided I wanted to change lenses.  Of course the lens I wanted was back in the truck.  Back through the vines.  On the way back, mother earth reached up to meet me.  After a quick recovery and an observation of thanks that I was sans audience for the crash, I proceeded to start the snapping procedure.

I continued the shoot.  I started to wonder what had happened to the walls.  It occurs to me that a building of that size would have had more than a modicum of board feet tied up in walls, yet no such detritus was visible.

Up-Close Strangeness

The closer you get the stranger it becomes.  Perhaps Houdini was reincarnated as a lumberthief.

Though we are curious, we will probably never solve the mystery, which will not cause any lack of sleep.  Perhaps this will be a good thing to remember the next time we encounter a curious and unexplained, yet inconsequential phenomenon.

Clarity on the Mountaintop

Upstairs, at the top of Petit Jean Mountain, there is no mystery.  All is revealed.

Meantime, topside, some eleven-hundred feet or so above, the view from the Petit Jean overlook was spectacular, the sort of thing that makes one forget about unexplained, yet inconsequential phenomena.