Arkadelphia

Upon leaving Beale St, I had to decide where to go next. Texarkana seemed a bit too far, and I was exhausted. So Arkadelphia it was. I've always loved that name, but I learned that it means "Chest of Brothers," and.. well, I just don't get it. At all.

I drove around a bit and found Toltec Mounds Park, which has mounds built by... people who lived here before Columbus... and who weren't Toltecs. Seems the guy who owned the place 100 years ago was convinced they were Toltec.

They're just big mounds of dirt, supposedly there for religious significance. And... they line up astronomically. If I make any geographic shape on the ground, isn't it going to line up with SOMETHING rising or setting on a certain day? I'm sure some of these things really were constructed to recognize the start of spring, etc., but I often wonder if archaeologists get a little to grandiose with their theories.

It seems that every petroglyph has "deep spiritual meaning" to its creator, but we know humans have created graffiti for thousands of years... how could we tell the difference?


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Anyway, what fascinated me was the ox bow lake the mounds were built on. Close the buble in the picture above, and look at them all? Ox bow lakes are created when a winding river on nearly flat land floods and cuts a new, shorter channel past one of the bends.

Without doing any research, I wonder if the mounds were to protect structures from flooding, or if they were simply a place for spectators to watch sporting events. Dunno.

I splurged on a Hampton Inn here, because I was tired and needed to do some laundry. I had breakfast at the local Waffle House, which was quite good. I think I understand why they're so common in the South.