Arkansas

I just finished a wonderful trip to Arkansas and have a lot ot share.  I started off in Little Rock, then Murfreesboro, and then Hot Springs.  There was much to see and do in Arkansas.  Outside of Little Rock were the Toltec Mounds. 

 

 

This area of Arkansas was occupied on and off for thousands of years, but the mounds have been attributed to the people labelled as the Plum Bayou Culture.

 

We stopped at the Clinton Museum next.  Inside the museum are binders with the schedule of the President for every day of the year, that he was president.

 

 

 

 

There were many artifacts including the limo and oval office furniture.

 

 

 

 

I had heard that President Clinton's biological father died in an automobile accident before he was born.  His mother remarried and Bill took the Clinton name.  Below is a picture of his biological father:

 

 

 

 

In Murfreesboro, we hunted for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds.  We didn't find any, but it was fun.

 

 

 

 

We also found another Native American site.  This one had dug up pits with replicas of the remains that were found.  The actual remains have been re-burried underneath the pits.

 

 

 

 

I will be writing more on the two mound sites we visited, on this blog.

 

In Hot Springs, we tried out the mineral baths and visited the many little museums in Little Rock.

 

 

 

 

One of the best little museums was a rock shop called Central Park Mining.  The man at the shop was very nice and explained all of the gems and rocks found in the mining kit to us.  They also had a very neat part of the mining experience.  It was a crystal cave lit by black lights in which you would have 7 minutes to dig through a sand pit and find gems, rocks, and possibly a valuable coin. 

 

 

 

We finished up with a visit to Lake Catherine State Park, which is one of fifty-two state parks in Arkansas.  It reminded me of the land I grew up on in the 1960s.

 

It was a very fine visit.  I would highly recommend visiting Arkansas.



Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village

Ka-Do-Ha is an archaeological site in Arkansas in the town of Murfreesboro.  The site has some replicas of opened mounds on display.  The original remains of the people buried there, were re-burried after being studied and the plastic replicas of the skeletal remains are what is on display in the pits.

The people that lived at or near these mounds belonged to the Caddo people.  The remains are believed to be from 800 years ago or even older than that.  This would place them around the time period of 1200 AD or before.  The site has a small museum with artifacts on display.  Here are some pictures from the museum:

 

 

 

 

Now here are some pictures of the re-created opened mounds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these skulls have elongated heads.  It is believed they were made this way with head binding techniques.  An elongated skull was a sign of royalty.  To me these skulls are very similar to the skulls of the Pharaohs and European Kings and Queens.

 

 

As indicated in the sign, the mounds were built over a period of hundreds of years.  When a chief died, the temple on top of the mound was destroyed by fire and a new layer of Earth was added on top and a new temple was constructed.  A ceremonial fire burned continuously on top of the mound.

I didn't see evidence of it, but I would bet that these mounds may have been aligned to capture the sun light during solstices and equinoxes.

 

 

A butcher site was also dug up and on display. 

Links:

http://www.caddotc.com/index.html

The Dole Mansion

I just finished a visit to the Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  The house was built by Charles Dole.  He was not the same Dole who started the Dole Plantation in Hawaii, but rather he was an early member of the Chicago Board of Trade as a grain merchant and partner with his brother James Dole in the Chicago-based Armour, Dole and Company.

The house was built during the Civil War period and was used as a summer home for the Dole family.  The estate had over 1,000 acres of land overlooking the lake.   The mansion is a 3-story Italian villa with a tower on top.  Charles Dole imported European craftsmen to lay unique floors in the mansion.  Each room had a different wood layout.  There are many fireplaces throughout the house as the fireplace was used to warm the house in those days.  Construction costs were over $100,000 which was a lot of money in those days.  Mr. Dole also had a racetrack for horses on his property.  There are also many carvings of wheat in the wood and ceilings because of the work that Charles Dole did as a grain merchant.

Mr. Dole was married to his wife Julia and they had 3 children.  His mother-in-law lived with the family.  The Dole family lived in the mansion until the late 1890's when he sold the home to his son-in-law.  The house was later sold to Mrs. Ringling who was the widow of the oldest Ringling brother of the Ringling Brothers Circus.  It was then converted into a country club until the stock market crash of 1929.  It was then converted into a Catholic seminary in 1945.  It is now owned by the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park that has converted the mansion into two art galleries, artist studios, and a cultural center that offers classes and art/music shows. 

It is said that the mansion may be haunted.  I did not see anything out of the ordinary, but on the 3rd floor my camera malfunctioned and would not take a picture near an original sink until I moved backwards.

Here are some of the pictures of the mansion:

 

 

 

The woodwork in the mansion is the original wood.  Some of the furniture on the 2nd floor (the armoire and sink) are original; however, much of the furniture has been brought in to show what the furniture of the time would have looked like.

 

 

Much of the 2nd and 3rd floors still need to be rehabbed, but hopefully it will be done down the road. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All pictures copyrighted to Rita Jean Moran

 

  

Links:

http://www.lakesidelegacy.org/

http://www.lakesidelegacy.org/charles-dole.html