FAYETTEVILLE -- If, as Confucius said, "true wisdom is knowing what you don't know," then today I am a wise man. I have been to the mountain -- with a geologist.
The source of this great enlightenment came recently when I, along with 33 other hardy souls, endured cold and wet conditions to attend a nature hike up Kessler Mountain with Walt Manger, professor of geology emeritus at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Among things I know now: Kessler Mountain is not a mountain. It is a standing remnant of the south flank of the Ozark Dome.
The hike was organized by Terri Lane, vice president of the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association board of directors and executive director of Northwest Arkansas Land Trust. Lane organizes mountain hikes and other enlightening activities related to the area to educate the public on the natural resources within the Kessler Mountain Reserve.
Our excursion began in the parking lot of the former Ozark Mountain Smokehouse on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Fayetteville, about a half-mile west of Interstate 49. From the lot, hikers were shuttled up the road to what landowner Frank Sharp likes to call "the Sharpridge pub," in his family business's original buildings.
Sharp worked with his parents, Roy and Mary Sharp, to open the smokehouse in 1946. They smoked turkeys they had raised and sold them to a hungry public through the deli restaurant. At its peak under his ownership, the business had 12 outlets scattered across Arkansas. Sharp uses the original site to accommodate visitors for private activities organized to promote the reserve.
Rather than leave everyone shivering on the trail, exposed to the elements, Lane thoughtfully arranged for the group to congregate in one of the warm smokehouse buildings for an introductory lecture on the origins of Kessler Mountain.
As we seated ourselves in the dining area, Manger began his talk on the geologic history of the area we were about to hike through.
Manger distributed handouts containing charts, graphs and maps. For geologists, time passes in increments of hundreds of thousands of years. On Manger's time scale, the entire duration of mankind would be only a single tick on a geologist's clock.
The enormous mass of geologic time is broken into four eons, which are divided into 14 eras, which are subdivided into periods, which are further subdivided into epochs and ages. This system helps geologists to cross-reference rocks and geologic events around the globe.
By geologists' reckoning, the formation of Kessler Mountain took approximately 25 million years that spanned parts of the Pennsylvanian (286 million to 320 million years ago) and Mississippian (320 million to 360 million years ago) periods. This time is considered the age of amphibians; it also saw the emergence of the first reptiles.
Manger further narrowed these time periods into a subdivision called the Morrowan period, and then he even further divided that into early, middle and late Morrowan periods. He next described the environmental activities that were taking place during these periods for specific parts of Kessler Mountain, and what geological actions resulted in rock formations that can be found there today.
It was during this talk that he explained about mountains and domes. A dome is like a big pile of sedimentary layers that might have been lifted up in various ways. A true mountain experiences a particular type of uplift called isostatic rebound, which Kessler has not undergone.
UNDER OUR FEET
Armed with this new knowledge, the group was eager to begin the hike, certain we would view the mountain's natural features in a whole new light.
Exiting the pub, we walked to the Rock City Trail trailhead just up the road. Fayetteville has constructed another trailhead on the eastern side of the mountain for its trails on public land. But Rock City Trail is on private property. Visitors are required to sign one of the liability waiver forms provided at the trailhead.
Manger explained that we were beginning our hike at the bottom of the mountain in deposits of black sedimentary rock called the Fayetteville Shale, created some 335 million years ago.
As we progressed up the mountain, he said, our hike would cover some 25 million years in time (geologist years, that is). Over that time, layer upon layer of mud, sand and lime had built up to form the prominence we call the mountain.
Manger paused beside one of the many large crevices through which the trail snakes its way. He called attention to the particularly rough texture of the bluff. The entire surface was covered with tiny ridges. Between each there were shallow grooves about one-half to one inch in depth. Each of these hundreds of grooves represented thousands of years of erosion, the result of the constant changes in water levels in the area.
The ground on which we were standing was once the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, he said. The fossils found on Kessler Mountain were left behind during periods of lower water levels, which deposited these remains on the flat benches of the mountain.
As we walked farther up, perhaps 5 million geologist years later, the trail meandered through a series of massive boulder crevices known as Rock City.
Manger pointed out another series of ridges cut in the stone wall beside the trail. Rather than being somewhat straight and running parallel with the ground, as we had seen before, these twisted and swirled across the rock surface. He explained that they were formed during rough, turbulent periods of stormy weather.
Many times while hiking in the Ozarks, I have wondered what could have caused this type of twisted formation. Now I know.
Hiker Duane Woltjen of Fayetteville pointed out a large stand of chinquapin oak trees. He explained that the limestone on that particular side of Kessler Mountain provided an ideal environment for the tree. Due to the difficult terrain and the fact that chinquapin oaks do not lend themselves to the band saw or the production of dimensional lumber, this stand is part of an uncut ancient forest. Core samples have dated some of these trees to more than 300 years in age.
THE HERE AND NOW
As the African proverb states, "It takes a village to raise a child," and many individuals were involved in the creation of the Kessler Mountain Reserve. But every successful cause seems to require a dedicated champion. For Kessler Mountain, that champion is Frank Sharp.
Raised on the mountain, hiking and exploring it all of his life, he's highly aware of its natural treasures.
When the SouthPass Development Co. bought 800 acres on and around Kessler Mountain, with plans to construct retail businesses, apartments, condos and 4,000 housing units along the mountain's ridge line, Sharp thought his days of enjoying the area were numbered.
But when the real estate project failed, he sprang into action to ward off future development attempts. He approached the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association for help with preserving the mountain. Having succeeded in their campaign to save Mount Sequoyah, the association had a proven procedure to use as a blue print for Kessler Mountain.
Sharp began working with the association chairman, Bob Caulk, to build a coalition of individuals and groups who were interested in preserving as much land as possible on the mountain.
From their experience with Mount Sequoyah, they knew they wanted to have a way the public could experience the natural resources on Kessler. Sharp and Caulk recruited the Ozark Off-Road Cyclists club to build hiking and biking trails. Today more than eight miles of multi-use paths crisscross the mountain.
The group also invited scientists to explore and study Kessler and then give public lectures about their discoveries. To make such events enjoyable as well as informative, Sharp built the outdoor brick pizza oven. His daughter told him the place resembled a pub, hence its nickname.
All of their efforts were designed to create public support for the city of Fayetteville to buy land on the mountain as a protected reserve for future generations to enjoy. After a decade of support-building, the coalition approached the City Council with a request to purchase 376 acres on Kessler Mountain.
On Feb. 18, the city agreed to partner with the Walton Family Foundation for the proposed land acquisition.
However, for Sharp and the association their work is not over. As part of the agreement with the city to acquire the land for the reserve, the association agreed to reimburse the city $300,000, to be collected through donations from the community.
They are collecting donations from walkers, hikers, bikers and explorers who enjoy the reserve. Donations can be made through the website fayettevillenatural.org or by mailing a check to Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association, P.O. Box 3635, Fayetteville, Ark. 72702.
THE FUTURE
From the beginning the reserve was intended to be used as an outdoor educational facility. Birders, running and bicycle clubs and other outdoor groups have already begun to schedule outings for their members.
The association is working with Fayetteville schools to develop a study program for fourth-graders. Sharp has also begun working to convert the ground floor of the smokehouse building into an indoor classroom.
The association plans to work with the University of Arkansas to design a science curriculum with outdoor study programs at the reserve.
There are plans for signs to identify geological and cultural assets unique to the area. One such asset is the wine cellar built by Phillip Kessler, for whom the mountain is named. He operated Arkansas' first winery there in 1869.
ActiveStyle on 12/08/2014