Hawthicket

The old Hawthicket Church sits along a lonely and dusty dirt road in rural Faulkner County. Its rusty metal door is locked tight, because this church no longer has a congregation. The old church rarely gets visitors, other than the cows that walk along the barbed-wire fence in the pasture lands next to the church.



The church was probably built around 1950. It replaced an older wooden buidling that had also served as a school. That church had been described as a "little white wooden church with a tin roof and wooden pews" that had stood for about 100 years. A member of the church thought that the old building probably wouldn't last much longer, and set about raising funds to build a new church. The new church, built with bricks and a shingle roof, would be a structure that she thought would stand forever.



But by the time she had managed to raise funds to build the church, most of the congregation had already transitioned to the nearby Bethlehem Cemetery. There is no record of there ever being a church service held here.



What was built as the "little brown church in the vale" became an orphan church. It has no owners or official caretakers. The people who own the cemetery are kind enough to mow the grass in front of the church, but they aren't able to do any maintenance on the building.



Several holes have appeared in the roof, and they grow after each and every storm.



The bricks of this old church have been resilient so far, but with such a large hole in the roof you have to wonder how much longer this church (which was built in order to "stand forever") will continue to hold out.

Kingfisher Trail

Last Saturday morning, it was cloudy and somewhat cool outside (which meant the heat index was not 110). So we decided to take the boys and the dogs out to do something outdoorsy. We headed to Pinnacle Mountain State Park, which surprisingly wasn't all that crowded. We did the Kingfisher Trail, which is short enough for a three year old. And, most importantly, it has a playground next to it.

It's a nice trail, as it runs through some forest and along the Little Maumelle River. I tried to do my best to take pictures, which wasn't easy since I was also holding a dog leash and making sure a toddler doesn't run off into the water.



Along the trail are two massive bald cypress trees, which are thought to be over 500 years old. It's amazing to think that these trees could have been growing around the time that the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel were painted.

A Sky Full Of Stars And Mosquitoes

Recently we had one of those rare and blessedly cool string of days, which was like an oasis during the blast of furnace heat we've had this summer. It was actually pleasant to be outside. Which meant that it might be a good time to attempt some star trail pictures.

So one night after work I packed up the camera gear and hurried out to an abandoned church near Keo. And while I remembered all the camera gear, I made one major flaw. I forgot to bring bug spray. To the Delta. In the summer. As soon as I exited the car, I was immediately attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes. I tried to set up the camera, all while skeeters were biting my arms, legs, and neck. I tried to get the camera in focus while their high-pitched whine rang in my ears.

It was all for nothing. The camera lens fogged up after about thirty minutes and nearly all of the shots were useless. Whoops. But I think it's a good spot, so I'll try again. But maybe in the winter when there won't be any mosquitoes to deal with.

I did wipe the condensation off the lens and tried to get a shot of the church, with a sky filled with stars above. You can just barely make out the Milky Way, I think it would be brighter if it wasn't so close to Central Arkansas' blob of light pollution.

Blanchard Springs Caverns

On one of the last weekends of the summer break, Jonah and I drove up into the Ozarks and visited Blanchard Springs Caverns. It is a nice place to visit in the dog days of August. It might be 100 degrees outside, but in the cave it's a nice and chill 58 degrees.



Blanchard Springs is the largest cave in Arkansas, and features massive stalactites, stalagmites, columns and flowstones. It's thought that some of these formations began over a million years ago. Also in the cave are these delicate and fragile "soda straw" formations.



It's not the easiest place to take pictures, since it's a dark cave deep underground. During the tour you obviously can't stop and take pictures with a tripod, so I did the best of what my old camera (and Iphone) could handle. They used to do photographer tours in the cave back before Covid, hopefully they will start those back up again soon.

Shirley

The road to the small town of Shirley in the Ozark Mountains has to be among the most curviest roads in the state. It's fun to drive (as long as you don't get car sick), plus there are a few neat things to see along the way. Like some old barns:



And this old school/church building:



Just outside of Shirley is an old rail bridge, which was built in 1908, which crosses the Little Red River.



When rail service through Shirley ended, the bridge was paved over and converted into use for cars.



The bridge is very narrow, and with flimsy-looking guardrails. I wasn't brave enough to actually drive or walk across one...