Home Opinion Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: Arky Road Trip to ‘Pyramids’

Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: Arky Road Trip to ‘Pyramids’

5289
0

ARKY ROAD TRIP.

It’s been awhile, but the Navigator and I hit the road again this past weekend to see a rumored semi-local attraction with our own eyes.

It was during a visit with my mother a few weeks ago that I first heard about the ‘Pyramid City’ somewhere up in the REAL boonies in Montgomery County. Years ago she and my father had driven there with friends who had property nearby. As she recalled, the place included seven or eight houses that looked like pyramids, and a big one which was supposedly a ‘town hall’ meeting room. The place had been built by a cult. They were reportedly there for awhile, and then suddenly they were gone.

Except for one pointy house where there were occupants at the time of my parents’ visit.

I asked around on Facebook and got a modest description of how to find this place, and Sunday afternoon we set off to find it.

The Navigator had an explanation about the disappearance of the residents of Pyramid City. She has lots of explanations of many things.

“I’ll bet aliens landed and took those people away,” Navigator said. “Either that, or they were really aliens themselves returning to the mother ship. Imagine: Aliens hiding amongst us in plain sight.”

She believes that aliens were involved because this place is so close to Mena as the crow flies, and she believes that everyone in Mena is from outer space.

I have learned never to argue with the Navigator.

To get to the pyramids we drove through Murfreesboro, Glenwood, and Norman, and stayed a ways on Highway 8 past Black Springs. Then we took a paved turnoff marked ‘Sulphur Springs’ and went to the first fork which was Sulphur Springs Road. All roads turned to bad gravel at this point.

Then to Big Fork Road, and another mile or so down a dusty, dusty, dusty narrow trail.

About the time we were beginning to think we were on a wild goose chase, we spotted the pyramid houses. They were close to the road, easily seen. There were seven or eight houses, each covered with metal siding painted different colors. They looked more like teepees than pyramids. (Cue the outerspace mystery music. They also looked like a collection of rocket nosecones pointed skyward.)

There was one large pyramid which we figgered was the town hall.

The grounds showed signs of recent mowing.

And behind one house there appeared to be an alien working in his garden.

We were too fearful to ask if we could look closer at the place. Instead, we drove back toward planet earth.

Once back on the paved Sulphur Springs road I noticed that we crossed over a little bitty creek on a very narrow bridge. A green sign on the bridge announced Caddo River. Wow. It was not even three feet wide at that point, and it was maybe two inches of clear water tumbling over gravel. You could literally step across it.

When we got back to State Highway 8 we didn’t turn back toward home. We went a ways because I wanted to see the community known as Board Camp. We never got there — or maybe we went thru it and didn’t know. At any rate, we were afraid to get much closer to Mena just in case they had their human being detectors engaged.

We reversed course back toward Norman. And spotted a small sign that pointed to a narrow road. Shady Lake 15 miles, it announced.

The afternoon was still young and we still had most of a box of Triscuits, so we dared to take the road. It was very rough and narrow and dusty. And lonely. Somehow I got confused and took a fork that turned out to be a hiking trail. Man, it was REALLY rough and narrow. But the upside was that there was no oncoming traffic.

By the time we drove the 15 miles to Shady Lake, we had seen only two hikers and a hen turkey. It took us most of an hour to cover that short distance.

My buggy had a two-inch coating of Ouachita National Forest road dust, so I stopped at the car wash in Dierks. Lucky for me, the Navigator found a few extra quarters in her purse because the four quarters I found in the ashtray didn’t go far enough.

Clean and shiney we returned to Nashville.

Next time I go to Pyramid City I’ll ask the alien if I can look around. He’ll have to promise not to beam me up to the mother ship. Or ask for any of the Triscuits.

•••••

ANIMAL CRACKERS. A clutch of tiny blue eggs in my bluebird box. Mom and dad are real spooky and take flight at the slightest movement in their direction. I hope to hear a chorus of cheeps soon.

•••••

THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.

•••••

WORD GAMES. The twins: One or the Other. You can’t have both. They’re related to Either and Or.

•••••

HE SAID: “There are some people who have the quality of richness and joy in them and they communicate it to everything they touch. It is first of all a physical quality; then it is a quality of the spirit.” Tom Wolfe, journalist

•••••

SHE SAID: “I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.” Golda Meir, Milwaukee schoolteacher and later Prime Minister of Israel

•••••

SWEET DREAMS, Baby

Previous articleNashville News-Leader • May 23, 2018
Next articleObituary: James Sherrill Allen of Nashville