PMSP Base Trail Interpretation Notes 3/2010

Transcription

1 Written by Bill Toland PMSP Base Trail Interpretation Notes 3/2010 Volunteer Interpreters: Check with Park Interpreters the day before you are coming to make sure your tour group is still scheduled and to give the park staff confidence that you remember your obligation. See if your group has any special interests or requests like an emphasis on trees, plants, etc. and review the size and age of the group. Show up about 30 minutes ahead of time at the Visitors Center to review any last minute details. You may check the pink scheduling sheet hanging on the wall on the right as you enter the park interpreters office. The pink sheet will give you the contact person for the group and other details that might be helpful. Dress appropriately, use bug spray, and bring your cell phone, something to write on, and a pointer like a mirror or green laser. At the end of the tour you do not need to check back with the park interpreters unless there was some issue or some question you couldnt answer. Park Interpreters: Courtney Todd, Susan Staffeld, and Kristina Root. (501) General Instructions for Groups: 1. Stay on the tread (wildflowers and other small plants will be trying to bloom). 2. You may not pick or take any plant, rock, or animal in any State Park. Nothing would be left if everyone took even one small piece of the park. The only thing you can pick up is litter and we really appreciate you doing that! 3. Look and listen. You may not see animals, but you may hear them or see evidence of them like feathers, tracks, or scat. 4. The leader is always in front, so dont get ahead of me. (Note..would be a good idea to have someone bring up the rear to keep the group moving) General Overview: Pinnacle Mountain State Park is located near the northeast corner of the Ouachita Mountains.

2 The parks namesake is the first prominent cone-shaped mountain encountered by the early westward travelers as they emerged from the alluvial plains of east Arkansas. Rising 756 feet from the adjacent flood plains, Pinnacles rocky peak reaches an elevation of 1,011 feet above sea level. During the colonial and early American periods, the mountain was known as Mamelle mountain. Mamelle is a French word applied to any breast-shaped hill. Over time, the term Mamelle became Maumelle. Pinnacle Mountain, Like the rest of the Ouachita Mountains, is part of a highly eroded crumple zone that resulted from the collision of two continental plates of the earths crust about 275 million years ago. Before the collision process altered the region, the Ouachitas were accumulating sediments on the ocean floor several thousand feet below sea level. Today, after over 275 million years of erosion, the Ouachitas, including many peaks like Pinnacle, are greatly reduced remains of a once mighty mountain range. The remnants of these deep ocean sediments are present today as the gray sandstone and shale found in and around the mountain. NATIVE VEGETATION The native vegetation of this area of the Ouachita Mountains is an Oak-Pine forest that is essentially similar to that of the Ozarks Within this forest, however, there is a great diversity of floral communities based on a variety of factors such as slope and soil. Stands of pine are found on poorer, rocky, or sandy soils. On better soils, pine is mixed with oak and hickories. The climax vegetation is the white oak forest association, loosely defined as luxuriant deciduous forest of limited extent on north facing slopes On south facing slopes, a contrasting forest composed of a thin forest of pines mixed with oak and hickories is found. Steeper slopes are often covered by thickets of shrubs and stunted trees locust, post oak, blackjack oak except in the open rocky glades where few woody species occur A post oak-blackjack oak type forest occupies the comparatively level rocky summits. Native Americans During early European explorations and the colonial period, local Native Americans, from about 1500 to the late 1700s, were the Tunica and the Quapaw. Most of the tribes were gone by 1820.

3 NOTE! The notes below are by trail section. Some interpretive hikes may not be the entire base trail. Section A: West Summit Trail east to Ouachita Trail. Section B: Ouachita Trail west to emergency access road. Section C: Emergency access road west/south to West Summit Trail. Note that the base trail now has 1/10 th of a mile markers. There are 27 of them around the trail. SECTION A Quarry Sites ( Section A) Six quarry sites are located within the parks 2069 acres. Shale and massive sandstones have been removed for a variety of construction projects from about 1920 to the present. For instance, the eastern slope of Pinnacle Mountain was a major source or rock used in the construction of the Lake Maumelle dam in the mid-1950s. Remnants of the quarried areas are visible in this section as pine thickets, eroded road beds, and bulldozed rock features. Woody Plants of Section A Base Trail White Oak, Paw Paw, Baldcypress, Winged Elm, Virginia Creeper, Wild Grape, Honey Locust, Loblolly Pine, Shortleaf Pine, Poison Ivy, Sycamore, Bitternut Hickory, Sweetgum, Muscle Wood Barred Owl (Section A) A common owl seen along this section of trail is the Barred Owl. Large (21 ) brown and white owl with a streaked (barred) belly. No ear tufts. Brown eyes.

4 Call: Who-Who-WhoWho. Who-Who-WhoCooksForYou. Who-Who-WhoCooksForYou- Allllll. Nests: Cavities of trees. Will use abandoned nests of hawks, squirrels, or crows. Young from small cavity nests may fledge earlier than young in roomier cavities. Parental care extends beyond four months. Eats: Mice, squirrels, rabbits, crawdads, amphibians, and insects. Hovers or perches to pounce down onto prey. Even more than other owls, barred owls are very quiet gliding down to snatch prey. Feeds close to nests. Very often hunts during the daytime. Other Common Animals Three toed Box Turtles, Ringneck Snakes, Copperheads, White Tailed Deer, Armadillos, Gray Squirrels, Pileated Woodpeckers are commonly found along this section. SECTION B Ouachita Trail (Section B) The base trail shares the Ouachita Trail (blue trail) that begins at the VIC and continues for 225 miles west to Talihina, Oklahoma. PMSP manages 34 miles of the OT. This portion of the OT was completed in 1981 by the Young Adult Conservation Corps. Thong Trees (Section B) Trees similar to Thong trees, also known as Indian trail trees, dot the landscape on the northern part of the base trail. Thong trees are trail markers left by the Indians and early settlers to denote locations of salt licks, springs, caves, and medicinal herbs found along the ancient pathways. To create a thong tree, Indians tied a leather strap to a sapling then staked down the other end of the strap so the young trees would bend. Eventually the thong would break, but the tree trunk

5 would remain bent. Of course these trees are just examples of what they would look like, since there have not been any Native Americans in the area since about 1820 and most of these trees are less than 50 years old. Woody Plants Post Oak, Blackjack Oak, Shellbark Hickory, Muscle Wood, Dogwoods, Shortleaf Pines, White Oaks, Northern Red Oaks, Winged Elm, Sweetgum, Sycamore. Common Animals White tail deer, Eastern Box Turtles, Black Rat Snakes are commonly observed in this section of the trail along with dozens of species of birds. Homestead (Farmstead) (Section B) In 1878 ( 130 years ago!), Nathaniel Newsom was issued a patent for the N1/2 of the NW1/4 of Section 3. The eastern portion of this tract is traversed by the proposed trail. Newsom was a homesteader, and likely had his residence in the more level portion of the land patent (i.e., along or northwest of HY 300). One newly recorded archaeological site. Site 3PU781 is a historic surface feature, a low rock wall consisting of a reverse L shaped alignment of stacked rocks, with some associated hog wire. The stones are crudely stacked in linear alignments that extend 175 m north and 190 m east from a common wall corner. The site is located with the 1878 Nathaniel Newsom Homestead patent, and is within a smaller tract owed by N.W. Newsom during The Newsoms ownership of the tract is correlated with the initial settlement and development of the Pinnacle Mountain locality, and the rock portion of the wall was most likely laid during this period (i.e., the late nineteenth century). The woven wire fencing could be an early-twentieth-century improvement to an earlier wall built by the Newsom family. The presence of woven wire fencing and pit-like wallows

6 adjacent to the wall suggest the site functioned as an animal pen, probably as a hog pen. Section C Flapper Rock (Section C) Need some info here! Woody Plants Honey Locust, Shellbark Hickory, Red Buckeye, Muscle Wood, Persimmon, Winged Elm, Wild Grape, Red Bud, Shortleaf Pine, Sycamore, Bitternut Hickory, Sweetgum, Black Jack Oak, Red Oak, White Oak Common Animals White Tail Deer, Pileated and Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Eastern Box Turtles, Gray Squirrels, Black Rat Snakes, Ringneck Snakes, Copperheads