Pit
The Arkansas novaculite of North Mountain has long been valued for the hardness of the rock. As I mentioned before, Native Americans used it as spear tips, axes, and arrowheads. I orignally thought this little pit just downhill from the Goat Rock Trail was the result of thier work, but it's a bit more recent. Starting in 1818, A Scotsman named Anderson started a business here mining the novaculite and selling it as whetstones for metal blades all across the eastern U.S. There are supposedly similar pits all over the mountain, but this is the only one I saw.
Pit
The Arkansas novaculite of North Mountain has long been valued for the hardness of the rock. As I mentioned before, Native Americans used it as spear tips, axes, and arrowheads. I orignally thought this little pit just downhill from the Goat Rock Trail was the result of thier work, but it's a bit more recent. Starting in 1818, A Scotsman named Anderson started a business here mining the novaculite and selling it as whetstones for metal blades all across the eastern U.S. There are supposedly similar pits all over the mountain, but this is the only one I saw.