Friday, November 12, 2021

Boxley Valley

The next morning, I woke up early and headed off towards Boxley Valley to get some more fall color pictures. I drove through the small town of Deer (population 800) and stopped to get a quick shot of this old house.

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And ironically (in the Alanis Morissette way) right after I left Deer, I ran into an actual deer. It was standing in the road, and while I slammed on the brakes it decided to jump right in front of the car. We collided and the deer rolled over the hood, then hit the ground and ran off into the woods. I'm surprised that there wasn't more damage to the car - the headlight is busted, and the front bumper and side are messed up. And while it wasn't all that bad, it still left about $2500 in damages on my poor car.

I safely made it down to Boxley without any other animals attacking my car. Boxley Valley is one of the prettiest places in the state of Arkansas. It is a cornucopia of photogenic places, and I was eager to head back there (even if I had just been there a few weeks before). I stopped at this old barn, and while the photo with the regular camera didn't really turn out, the infrared camera made an interesting exposure. There was a bit of mist and fog hugging the top of Cave Mountain in the background.

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Just down the road was this old barn, which always makes me laugh because the window and open gap make it look like a happy face.

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Further down the road is the old Boxley Mill, which dates back to 1870. It was in operation until the 1940s, and is now preserved by the National Park Service.

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And the old springhouse. I wish I knew more about the history of this little building.

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I stopped at this old house, which doesn't look like it's lived in anymore (I'm guessing because someone wouldn't have left the window open on a cold morning like this).

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The side of the road was lined with cars as people stopped to see the valley's resident herd of elk. I drove by but didn't stop, instead I got this pictures from the window of the car. The damage from the deer encounter resulted in the car making a loud metallic screeeeech everytime the door opens, which would probably scare away the elk (and anger all the photographers and elk-watchers nearby).

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One of the oldest buildings in Boxley is this structure, which was built in the 1850s as a home. It was later converted into a barn.

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This great old barn was built way back in 1915:

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This was a fun little road to drive down...

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The road heads up to the old Beechwoods Church, which was built in 1918.

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The church sits by the Beechwoods Cemetery, which is the oldest cemetery in Boxley Valley. The oldest grave here dates back to 1848

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Also nearby is this old building, which may have been used as an old schoolhouse at one point:

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And one last shot, of yet another old barn. This one was built way back in 1920:

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