BIG TREE

This weekend, while in Arkansas, I had the opportunity to climb what is supposed to be the largest Magnolia tree in Arkansas. For posterity, I carried my digital camera along for the ride and took some pretty neat pictures.

Really odd-looking squirrel perched in the tree...

This was taken about thirty feet off the ground and about ten to fifteen feet out from the trunk of the tree. Some of the upper branches were still over a foot think.

Don't look down.

I stood up on one of the upper branches and took this photograph.

Kitchen Pics

Inside the joint:


I wanted to steal this so badly, but alas, I take only pictures and leave only footprints.


This made me wish the place was still open. MMMMM.


...used to get together...

More Cattleman Pics

I took a second trip to my favorite abandoned site, this week. Amazing discovery: I found the catwalk. This gave me some great opportunities for pictures.

Isn't that an awesome view? That's my new desktop background.





Oh good. A wooden walkway. That's probably safer than the metal one. It wasn't.







I also found my way into the kitchen, as I mentioned last time.

The Cowboy Restaurant and Stockyard is an interesting venture. Imagine, the steak you're eating was killed only a hundred yards away, only minutes ago. I wonder if that's why it's abandoned. It was raining, but I didn't want to put the exploration off any longer. Rather than walk a mile to the site, I drove, and parked my car around back. Here's the first interesting tidbit about this place, it has a parking lot, but no road to reach it, so I had to drive my Chevy Cavalier through a field to get there.

I spotted three entrances right off: a broken window on the front of the building, a door with a broken pane above the doorknob (stuck) and a rear entrance inside the cattle yard. I decided to explore the cattle yard first, with it's miles of winding fence. It's like a disorienting maze in there.


I checked out what I guess is a guard shack by the cattle ramp, then ventured inside. The first room was a platform that rose up over the spot where the cows were killed. Very little to see: a big semi-circle room, a desk, two chairs and this thing:


I left that room and entered the main building through the open window on the front side. I had to step down on a couch, wind my way through a room full of cardboard boxes, before I found what looked a little like a waiting room. There was a bathroom at the back. I explored less than half the building because I was very uncomfortable with my car sitting (even hidden) outside. When I go back, I'll have o find the actual kitchen and restaurant.



There are more photos available on in my photbucket album, HERE.


Until next time,
~ATBH