Infrared Hot Springs

One place I've wanted to take the new infrared camera is to Hot Springs. Way back in the olden days, I took a bunch of pictures of Hot Springs on infrared black and white film. It would be interesting (to me at least), to see how the pictures taken now compared with ones taken way back in the year 2000 (which you can see here).

So one day my wife and I headed down to Hot Springs for a few hours. We parked the car and I headed off to take a few pictures while she had a leisurely stroll down Central Avenue perusing the shops (which was the better option, since all those places had air conditioning and it was already nearly 95 degrees outside). Here is a view of the old Medical Arts Building, which was built in 1929 and has been almost entirely abandoned for the past few decades. Amazingly, someone has bought the building and plans to convert it into a hotel.



I walked over to a paved trail that runs up the hill by the display spring towards the Promenade. It was shady and slightly cooler here amongst the trees.



And then back to Bathhouse Row, which was fairly crowded with people along the sidewalks. I waited for gaps in people to get a few pictures of the bathhouses, framed by the magnolia trees along the road. Here is the Quapaw Bathhouse, built in 1922:



And the Ozark Bathhouse, which was also built in 1922:



And the view of the Quapaw Bathhouse dome, from the Promenade:



And then one last shot from this visit, of the old Tom Moore cigar ghost sign. The sign is on the side of a building that was built in 1891.

Mount Holly Cemetery

Mount Holly Cemetery is a great place to go and take pictures, especially if you want to get moody black and white photos. So it seemed like a perfect place to take the new infrared camera. I didn't have the best timing for being out, since this was in the afternoon on a hot and muggy summer day in Arkansas. I was quickly drenched in sweat, but the things we do for a few pictures...



The cemetery was established way back in 1843, just twelve years after the city was founded. Mount Holly is the final resting place for many notable early residents of Little Rock and Arkansas. Among those buried here are eleven governors of Arkansas, thirteen state supreme court justices, four US senators, 21 mayors of Little Rock, and a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Buried here are also a few other people who have been written about recently on this blog - including architect George R. Mann (who designed the Arkansas State Capitol and Little Rock Central High, among many other buildings), preservationist Louise Loughborough (who helped save several of Little Rock's oldest buildings, and led to the start of the Historic Arkansas Museum), and Adolphine Fletcher Terry (who was active in civil rights and who helped reopen Little Rock schools after they were shuttered by Orval Faubus).



A modest marker sits at the grave of Qatie Ross, the wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross. Qatie and John were travelling to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears in 1839 when she caught pnemonia and passed away in Little Rock. She was buried at a cemetery that sits at the current location of the Federal Courthouse, but her grave was later moved here to Mount Holly. As you can see in this picture, people leave stones and coins on her gravestone.



The cemetery features a good number of Victorian-era stone markers and statues. Among them are these statues of the Virgin Mary and Joseph holding Christ, which stand out along the front row of the cemetery. The statues are at the grave of Justin Matthews, the real estate developer who designed several neighborhoods in North Little Rock, and who was the person who built The Old Mill.





A tall monument that is surrounded by massive crepe myrtle trees belongs to George Watkins, who served as the chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and was a prominent attorney in the 1800s.



Although there have been some recent burials here (most notably Jennings Osborne), there are currently no available lots for sale. There are spaces available in the columbrian.



I headed back to the car and the welcome embrace of the air conditioning and then started heading home. But I did make one last stop while I was downtown, and got this shot of the new Broadway Bridge (which I guess isn't that new anymore, since it's been open since 2017).

Lorance Creek

Lorance Creek is a neat little nature area, located a short drive from Little Rock. It's always worth making the short drive out there to take pictures, so I headed out there with the infrared camera.



I wasn't the only one out there, I was joined by a gang of mosquitoes and bugs that tried their best to make me their dinner (and of course I forgot to bring bug spray). I got a few pictures and survived without being turned into a big bug buffet.

Hester-Lenz House

In 1836, construction began on the Hester-Lenz house in Saline County. Originally built as a simple two-story dogtrot home, subsequent owners added onto and expanded the home. The building is still standing, although it is now almost surrounded by suburban sprawl.



The home was occupied until the 1990s, but is abandoned now.



The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Unfortunately it was then added onto the list of Most Endangered Places in 2011 by Preserve Arkansas. The home is in rough shape, and now there are concerns that it could be torn down in the near future as the road in front of the house is widened.

Out By Scott

I wanted to take the new infrared camera out for a few more pictures, so I took a few hours off work to drive through the flat Delta lands around Scott and Keo. There are lots of old abandoned structures out there, and a few swamps too. Plus the day was going to be somewhat cool (only in the 80s, much better than the nearly 100 degree temperatures that would happen later that week).

The first stop was just outside of Scott, in a spot near the old Marlsgate Plantation and Bearskin Lake.







Driving further down the road, I passed by this old tree that was growing right alongside the pavement.



I turned off the main road and went onto a bumpy and dusty gravel road that cut through the middle of soybean fields.



The road eventually ran by this old church, which looks to have been abandoned for quite awhile. The cornerstone on the church said that it had been built in the 1960s. There's no telling when it was abandoned.







I headed back to the main road, which then ran by this orchard of pecan trees. I pulled over for a few more pictures.





South of Keo was this batch of metal silos, which had a tractor parked nearby.



Just down the road was another old church, which also looks like it has been abandoned for some time. Part of the roof looks like it has collapsed, and hundreds of wasp nests guard the doors and interior (I wasn't brave enough to go inside).



The next stop was an oxbow lake, which was once the main channel of the Arkansas River. It it's now closed off and home to thousands of tupelo and cypress trees.





Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drive over to Pecan Alley, a stretch of road that is lined with century-old pecan trees. Unfortunately, it looks like a recent storm did some significant damage on the trees here. Several trees had been knocked down, and many had lost big limbs.



Just down the road is another abandoned church, one that I've been taking pictures of for many years. So I made one more stop, and got this view from under a large tree that casts shade over a few graves in a small cemetery.



I drove by another set of silos, the same ones that I took a star trail picture at earlier this year. The silos were surrounded by grass and soybean fields.



The soybean fields stretched off towards the horizon, which looked kinda neat in infrared.



It was time to head back home, but I made one last stop at the old silo which seems to tower over all the old buildings in Scott.