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On another occasion,
my brothers, Mike & John ,and I were exploring an area around Steele Creek. We spent a lot of time at Steele
Creek in those days of our youth. It was just a stream flowing through fields and woods back then and ,as a plus - there was
the swimming hole at The Bend.
On this particular
day we were snooping around the old rock quarry and the small cave in one of its sides. We'd already explored the cave some
time ago and it didn't go very far.
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Recently
there had been rumors of wild dogs living in the cave and coming out at night to kill & eat the nearby
farmer's calves, so we were being particularly quiet & cautious while in the vicinity.
(That very day , we had encountered
a dead cow lying in a nearby field. Upon examining the carcass, we saw a partially birthed calf protruding from the cow. It
was dead too.We guessed in its struggles to be born, it had encountered difficulty and died, killing its mother in the process.
There was no evidence of any dog attack or indication any animals had been lunching on the carcass.)
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I wander too much.........
Back
to the quarry : we decided to head up behind the quarry to seek out any sinkholes or other caves. There were several sinkholes,
a few were open but the hole was too small for any entry. We kept heading upward and in an easterly direction and soon entered
an open grassy area with a tiny limestone rock structure off to one side. It was about 6 feet square, with a sloping
tin roof and with a crude wooden door hanging off its hinges. Peering cautiously through the doorway and into the darkened
interior, I noted it had a dirt floor.
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Up the steep
hillside & easterly from the building I saw another smaller limestone rock structure enclosed with an iron door and,
upon opening it , I discovered naught but a small concrete-lined box like area, maybe 2-3 feet square, indicating it
had been used to store potatoes or other vegetables. There was no sign of water at all...nor of a cave running through
the hillside.
(ahhhhh, Jr. what would I have done without you to prod
my imagination? HA!)
As kids we returned here many times to play
and hang out on our way to & from the swimming hole. It was a good place to rest before continuing the walk home, or to
The Bend.
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Update: Feb 2008...
Today I returned to the limestone "shed" and the 2nd iron
door. I was astounded to see the building still intact, with only the tin roof missing. Seems it is a well-build structure
indeed. Up the steep rock-strewn and leaf-covered hillside, I espied the limestone-framed opening which once had been
enclosed by the 2nd iron door. Seems that door was now absent.
I also dropped by the rock quarry and checked some sinkholes.
Near one of them, I located the remnants of an old surface dumping area, circa 1920s' and recovered a few complete,common
corker bottles.
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The structure remains a mystery to me even after all these ensuing years:
why built, why there on such a secluded and steep hillside, ,who built it and, what was the purpose of the iron door covered
"box?"
The who may be answered: looking down at the back of
the "shed" - on the top front of the left wall is inscribed - MADE BY....PICKETT (or Puckett),followed
by several illegible letters.
On the top front of the right wall are what appears to be mostly illegible
numbers, ( a date?), two of which may be a 1 and a 9. Perhaps in time, both inscriptions
can be deciphered and an attribution made.
Additional info: In his book, Witness to An Epoch, Chas.J Harkrader
states, "There was an iron ore mine on West Broad Street where ore was mined and hauled on a dump car line a mile away to
a big iron furnace ( Furnace Bottom),on Pierce St. (now Morrison Blvd.) Small chunks of highly magnetic
ore could be picked up all over the fields adjoining the ore mine. The kids gathered up these small fragments and used them
to pick up pins & nails. To suspend a small bit of magnetic ore from a hair of a horse's tail, and observe it to
find the North & South poles was an unforgettable experience to a child's mind."
For more information about Steele Creek Park click the link below:
Friends of Steele Creek Nature Center & Park Website
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