Perhaps in the spring, there will more life on that next mountain over but Quarried Mountain will be my name for it...
Look at that photo above, can you see that someone has taken the rocks and built them into a wall? I wonder who did that? You see, you really want to take all these rocks and put them into some kind of order and beauty.
There, that's more like it. Back on the mountain that we love to visit!
Who knows, perhaps we will grow to love the Quarried Mountain too?
Here is Richard looking back at that mountain that we just left...
how much was blasted away? We read that these mountains are FIVE HUNDREDMILLION YEARS OLD. So, correct me if I am wrong, but they made it that far and the Quarried Mountain was destroyed in the 20th century?
On a positive note, there was a mention of my blog on someone's facebook page about my posts on Arabia Mountain! And I was informed that there is indeed a covered bridge on the walking/bike trail which is on the other side of the road from Arabia Mountain. It was exciting to discover that the construction of it was designed to honor Horace King, who was a famous bridgebuilder during the Civil War period. Horace King was a former slave who bought his freedom and was very well known for his covered bridges in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Look him up! I think this is fascinating!
His son, Washington King, built the covered bridge that is now at Stone Mountain. (This bridge was from the late 1880's but was moved to Stone Mountain in the early 1960's.) Look for the photo of the covered bridge on this trail...I WILL find it and photograph it one day, I promise!
Stacking the bits and pieces into a wall sounds like something I'd do - and I guess everyone who passes through that area can feel themselves invited to build another little piece of the wall, add some more from the rubble to it. Doing that on every visit, I am quite sure you'd grow to like the place much better, although it will never have the serene and yet wild beauty the other mountain offers.
ReplyDeleteThank you for telling us about Horace and Washington King, that is indeed a fascinating story, and you WILL find that bridge one day, I am convinced of that!
Like Librarian I think I'd feel inclined to build a wall as well. In the Lake District, in my fell walking days, we used to build cairns along the paths at every opportunity. The excuse was that it helped if you got lost in mist but in reality I think everyone just likes being constructive.
ReplyDeleteHello:
ReplyDeleteThere is something very humbling about being in the presence of a mountain which was shaped some millions of years ago. It really does make the time of human habitation seem pitifully small compared with the devastation and destruction that has been caused during that relatively short period.
How strange that people feel the need to build a wall. Perhaps a desire to create order out of chaos, but how magnificent it all looks so wild and untamed.
The whole idea behind this Davidson/Arabia Preserve is not just to preserve the land but also to show how man has "interacted" with the land. The photos that Richard took above were really the best ones, there are others that are simply big piles of rock. Being the optimist that he is, he looked for any signs of life and said that in one hundred years perhaps, it would look a lot different! Maybe future posts will show the wall becoming longer also as others add to it.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed humbling to be on a mountain that was formed millions of years ago. And I am grateful to all those who worked so hard to preserve this area. Wild beauty, indeed!