Novaculite EarthCache
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The coordinates will lead you to this Arkansas novaculite boulder. It is beside a restricted parking lot but it should be no problem to pull in there for this cache. You can drive right up to it and don't even have to get out of the cachemobile.
Novaculite has provided Arkansas with what might be considered its oldest industry. Hot Springs has produced whetstones of the finest quality from the days of its earliest settlement.
The name novaculite comes from the Latin novacula which meant a sharp knife or razor. The name was changed to novaculite in 1784 by Richard Kirwan in his book on mineralogy and is used as a class name for certain rocks.
This stone is found in an area lying along the Ouachita River Valley, extending from the vicinity of Little Rock, Arkansas to near Wright City, Oklahoma. Only a small portion of this area produces the stone that is usable for whetstones and that portion lies in the Hot Springs vicinity.
It is known that Indians mined novaculite for many years in the Hot Springs area. The earliest settlers found quarries or large pits where the stone had been removed. The Indians made arrowheads and stone tools which are found scattered through the area in their mounds and camp sites.
Hiram A. Whittington, an early settler, mined whetrock and manufactured whetstones locally. It is thought that his factory was in the area of Whittington, Central, and Park Avenues near the Majestic Hotel. That would have been across the street from this boulder looking towards the southwest. David D. Owen, State Geologist, reported the mining of novaculite in Garland County and told of its being shipped to Indiana during the 1850’s.
There were 34 separate quarries in Garland County in 1942 that had been worked at one time. Most of them were located on Indian Mountain and Quarry Mountain.
Approximately 300 million years ago the Ouachita Orogeny began. This was a mountain building event in which over a span of millions of years the sedimentary rocks, one of which is novaculite, were folded and faulted. Take note of this novaculite and you might begin noticing the stone in many places in the Hot Springs vicinity. There is a good outcropping at the overlook at the end of West Mountain Drive.
Email me the answers to the following questions. Please do not include the answers in your log. Since this is an Earthcache there is no physical cache. It is a learning experience based on your observations and reading the cache page.
Questions:
1) What does the term novacula mean in Latin?
2) What did the Indians use novaculite for?
3) What do you observe behind the boulder depicted in this photo?
4) What is on the ground around the boulder?
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Orfvqr cnexvat ybg