MLK day hike, Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness

Drove up to White Co/Cumberland Co line today to the Bridgestone /Firestone Centennial

Wilderness area. (big corporations donated over 100,00 acres after not finding a way to profit with it). Archie parked @ 4.6 miles from Caney Fork River and we hiked an ATV trail down to it and back. Lovely country side, lots of neat rock formations, a roaring white water river at the bottom and an old cemetery where there weren't even names on the markers. Lots of fun, try it if you are in the area.

Fort Smith pictures

This is the HQ for old Fort Smith ( although not the oldest Fort Smith as all that is left of that is the foundation of some buildings.) In front of the building is/were the parade grounds. The Fort is in a lovely park on the river or perhaps I should say rivers as there is a confluence ( I think that is the term for joining of two rivers) on the banks below the grounds of the old Fort.

The town itself is pretty hopping on Saturday nights, downtown lots of old buildings, and jazz/blues bars with the doors propped open and "tavern crawlers". Next time I'm over there I think I'll have to explore that further, (for informational purposes only of course)
There is a huge Catholic church in town really impressive you almost have to hurt your neck to see the top of it. There is a LOT to see in Fort Smith. They also have a BIG historic district full of old homes with ornate woodwork, and amazing leaded and stained glass windows and doors some of them on cobblestone streets! This yellow house is only one of many I took photos of on Sunday morning before leaving. Now as previously mentioned I can't leave a good cemetery unexplored and as luck has it Fort Smith has two that I would like to have spent more time in. One is a US national military cemetery. Lovely grounds although not as spectacular as that beautiful one I came across in New Mexico back in February 08. The other cemetery and a real must see in Forth Smith is an OLD OLD cemetery called Oak Cemetery where the old US marshals, judges and the men they hung are buried along with lots of just regular law abiding folk I'm sure. The grounds of this cemetery are beautiful, wrought iron fence around it. Incredible monuments and statuary throughout. These are a few photos of some of the monuments there.
As best I can tell about the statue to the left the fellow was born in 1837 probably fought in Civil War ( the uniform he is wearing appears Confederate) and died in 1920. His wife was born in 1847 and died later in 1920. Could not figure out the other woman, maybe it's his mother but she didn't appear to be buried there.

Cemeteries are of course sombre, sad places to the right is the grave of a small child as I recall dead at 10 years of age. What a heartbreak for the parents. Life was truly difficult in the 1800s for everyone.
I have no idea about the Celtic Cross monument but it was very handsome and really wanted its photo taken and of course I am a fan of Celtic Crosses even named a dog ( one of my favorite) that once.

What cemetery would be complete without guardian angels? There are several in Oak Cemetery. I think my two favorite though were this kneeling one next to one of the roads in the cemetery and the very tall monument where the angel almost seems to float in the trees.

Not to be morbid

Another favorite photographic subject for me is old cemeteries. On my detour this one popped up, I took several photos but the ones with the obelisk type monument are the most interesting. When I took my son to Mammoth Cave back in April we stopped at several of the old cemeteries in the park. I took photos, my son laughed ( kind of nervously) and said"Don't you think that's weird?" I said not really, people put up monuments because they want to be remembered or "found" by others. What more compliment to them than to photograph that?