We had several caves on our farm property which sat over the War Eagle River in NW Arkansas. This property was supposedly the site of a civil war campground after the battle of Pea Ridge, as well as the route the James Gang followed when being chased into Missouri.
So my neighbor, who is a cattle rancher, suggested we take a metal detector and explore the largest cave that sat above the civil war campsite on the south side of the river.
Sounds like a good idea to me, so we suit up, and head down to the river. From there, we climb the rocks up about 70 feet to the mouth of the cave. The view from up there is great, overlooking the river and the field where supposedly troops camped out during the civil war.
Anyway, the cave entrance is about 10 feet tall, and it's easy to walk in withing having to bend over or crawl. The cave surface is rock on the walls and ceilings, with mud on the floor. In the mud, we see fresh hoof tracks that look like those of a calf. My neighbor thinks maybe one of his calves got lost, maybe washed up here during the recent floods. So he is even more excited about exploring the cave.
We head into the cave, and forty feet in, we haven't found any metal - just mud, and more calf tracks. So we keep going. About sixty feet in, there's a real strong smell of a wild animal. And we can hear snorting, like something is rooting around deep into the cave.
And that's when we realize that what we thought were calf tracks, were actually wild hog tracks. And the sound we hear is likely baby pigs at the back of the cave.
We decide that it probably isn't a good idea to go further and take the chance that the mother hog will come in the front of the cave, and we'll be trapped between her and her babies. So we quickly gather up our gear and head out.
The lesson we learned is if you see fresh animal tracks going into a cave, you should probably stay out.
The best finds on the property were in the old barn, where a previous owner who thought the world was going to end, had stored his survival stash.
Bill