I am astonished that I have lived in this area my whole life and never heard of this place till just recently. It shows up on a few sites but to my knowledge has never been really investigated. So I immediately called one of my para-buddies and arranged a scouting expedition to get a feel for the area before setting up the night we will be going in
He was ecstatic and also surprised about never hearing of the place before. Due to it being over a hundred degrees this time of the year in Arrrrrkansas, we decided it would be wise to wait 3 or 4 weeks. Ill update this when we have made our final plans.
Here is some additional info:
Arkansas Folklore and Legends: An Anthology of Tradition, by Lesley Speller states:
"Many places are said to be cursed or damned. One such place is called Hell's Half Acre. Another in the same area is an unbelievably deep hole in the earth which seems almost endless. In this one, the hole is a bottomless pit created to house a demon which is chained within it. It is said that hunters caught after dark have heard its ". . . groans of pain and shrieks of savage profanity." Naturally, the place is greatly avoided after nightfall."
So goes the legend of Hell’s Half Acre in Hot Springs. Just one quarter mile off of Mill Creek Road is a place feared by locals, and avoided by even hunting dogs. Although it is called Hell’s Half Acre, it is actually about an acre or more of huge rocks, no plants, no growth, but an utter mystery to even geologists.
Some say the Devil lives below. Some say the gully of rocks is 8,000 to 10,000 years old. Some say this is a crater of an extinct volcano. As far back as the 1870’s, Hell’s Half Acre was a public anomaly. The Victorian Inn was built nearby and tourists walked a trail to the area to see these boulders lying in a large gully.
Geologists acknowledge this as a natural formation, but deny that it was once a volcano. But what heats the thermal hot springs in the Spa City nearby?
One expert, Scott Rowland, claims, "The problem is how to get water circulating down into the region of heat, and back again. This can be accomplished with ancient fractures left over from continental collisions, failed rifts, etc. My guess is that in the Hot Springs region there is some sort of ancient fracture in the North American plate which allows for the water circulation."
Could Hell’s Half Acre hold the secrets to an area ready for an earthquake or a volcanic eruption? No one knows, except for maybe the Devil himself!
Dr. Rando, PhD of Wit
(Thanks to the Garland County Historical Society and Larry Rhodes, local historical expert)
More:
Taken from
www.buysellfind.net/john33/iraq/I am told by those who have connections with the occult that we are very close to the releasing of the fallen angels that scriptures refer to so often.
Here in Hot Springs we have a place called "Hell's Half Acre" it is actually 2 acres and it has puzzled the scientific community for a century or to be more exact since about 1840. This place is a patch of ground that is made up of sharp rocks and nothing will grow. It's more involved than that but it is too deep to get into here... An occult, powerful man was buried there, at the edge of the patch for MANY decades and sometime in the 1990's he was moved to a new site, downtown and an obelisk is his headstone. This man's name was Whittington and a major blvd is named after him as well as many other landmarks. This was done quietly, sanctioned by the city leaders.
The road to Hell's Half Acre was closed by the county and the only way in is to hike. This place is said to be an opening into the 'pit' where fallen angels are imprisoned, soon to be released through the occult rituals.
This area is credited by the UFO, believers as being a major 'vortex' into time/space and many sightings are reported here.
Sounds like fun huh?