A rocky hillside near Hot Springs has reputed demonic roots but was actually mined by Native Americans. Hell’s Half Acre, a patch of broken rocks surrounded by woods, was described in 1892 as a “barren, weird, forbidding conglomeration of boulders, and arsenal for Titans. Not a blade of grass, not a shrub, not even a lichen dares brave the atmosphere of death and desolation which seems to pervade the uncanny spot.”
Tourism promoters reported a devil was trapped there “under the crushing weight of innumerable boulders” and visitors told of witnessing its “sulfurous breath … as it rose from among the rocks, and have heard deep underground moans of pain and shrieks of savage profanity.” Others claim that Spanish explorers mined for gold at the site.
Archeologists, however, determined that the rocks are novaculite and that evidence indicates that Native Americans used the site to craft arrowheads, knives, and farming tools. Hell’s Half Acre is now located on private property.
To learn more, visit encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
You can read the entire Encyclopedia entry at Hell's Half Acre - Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
