New Year's Day Hike

Rush, Arkansas


I don't remember exactly when our tradition of partying on New Year's Eve (and beyond) transformed into hiking on New Year's Day, but it happen several years ago. (Could it possibly be related to getting older?) Weather permitting, we pick a trail from a guidebook – usually one we haven't hiked before – and hike with a group of friends. It's a great way to begin a new year, and while I may be a little tired at day's end, hiking hasn't yet produced a hangover.

We've hiked with as many as seven or eight other couples in years past, but our group of co-hikers has dwindled as folks moved out of the area, lost interest and or just got lazy. Only one other couple joined us for this year's hike in the Rush Historic District of the Buffalo National River.

Clabber Creek

The Weather

It was sunny but chilly, with a temperature that never climbed out of the thirties and a 20 mph or so north wind. During the course of our hike, I changed costumes more often than Cher does during a performance. I wasn't actually changing costumes, of course, just taking layers of clothing off and then putting them back on. Hiking uphill out of the wind and in the sunshine required about half as many clothes as walking downhill in the wind on the shady side of the mountain.

A tiny mushroom braves the chilly
winter air.

A Brief History of the Rush Area

Rush is an old zinc mining town. Zinc mining peaked during World War I when there were 12 named mines in the area – and who knows how many smaller excavations -- that produced 3,209 tons of zinc. The population during the peak mining years is estimated at 5,000, which may not seem like a lot of folks to an urbanite, but is over twice as large as any town in Marion County today. Following WWI the market for zinc crashed and never recovered. In 1924 only four tons of zinc were produced.

The population of Rush rapidly fell to only a few hundred people and continued a gradual decline thereafter. The Rush post office was closed in the 1950s and the last resident move away in the early 1960s. In 1972 most of the Rush area was acquired by the National Park Service because of it's proximity to the Buffalo National River.

We were here. (Photo by Jo)

Not much of Rush remains today. Time, salvage and vandals took their toll on wooden structures, though there are still five houses in various states of disrepair along the main road. (These house look to me as if they've been moved to their present side-by-side location, but I'm not sure about that.). Concrete footings mark the past location of mining equipment. Virtually all of the equipment itself was melted as scrap during World War II. Of course, the mines and tailing piles still dot the hillside. A couple of the mines remained semi-active as sources of mineral specimens for many years after the decline of zinc mining.. Specimen collection by individuals continued until the mines became federally protected in 1972, and in fact, continued illegally until the entrances were closed with bat gates in 1996. (One of the specimen mines is on private property and posted against trespassing.) These mines were not safe by today's standard when they were still in full production. Eight decades of crumbling rock, decaying timbers and vertical shafts filling with water haven't made them any safer.

An entire ecosystem growing on top
of an old stump. (Photo by Jo)

Hiking Trails

To tell you the truth, Rush wasn't one of our better choices for a New Year's Day hike. There really wasn't much to see or photograph on the trails. We started out walking above and parallel to Clabber Creek, but the trail mostly just cuts through the woods. Even in winter you get only occasional glimpses of the creek below. After following the trail onto private property – it was marked but not posted – we did find an bluff-top overlook where I was able to photograph the creek below. From the overlook we backtracked to the over-the-mountain trail. This trail is a couple of miles long and some sections are steep enough that it's hard to keep your footing. I'm used to walking up and down hills, but there were muscles in the backs of my thighs that protested from unaccustomed overuse. Finally, we looped back to the parking lot along the mine level trail. After you've seen a half dozen barred adits and tailing piles, they tend to become less interesting.

Lichens or a something in the rock?
I couldn't decide.

It was around three o'clock by the time we returned to the parking lot. I would have liked to have spent more time exploring the old town area of the park, but the temperature was dropping again and we wanted to make it home before dark so we didn't linger. Someday when we are in that area again, we will return to Rush and spend more time in the old town area, but I don't think we make the effort to walk the trails again.

Three of the original prospectors in the Rush area built this silver smelter in 1886. The men made their discovery, filed a claim, began mining, built this smelter, loaded it with charcoal and ore-bearing rock and were fully prepared to become rich when the precious metal flowed out the hole at the bottom of the furnace. Only when no molten silver emerged did they come to realize they'd found zinc and not silver. Their exact words upon making this realization were not recorded, and probably could not be included on this blog had they been, but it was reported that the three prospectors were broke, discouraged and out of grub and soon abandoned their claim.

Links:

A more detailed history.
Photos of the remaining structures.
Mineral specimens from the Rush mines.
More about specimens.
An unauthorized tour of the mines.
Another unauthorized tour.
Photos from inside the mines.

New Year's Day Hike