The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-08-06
A Natural Stream of Tar.

In a rugged, almost mountainous,
portion of Kentucky, embraced in the
County of Breckenridge, in that State,
will be found unmistakable evidences OF
great upheaval of the earth, in the
long distant past, in the prehistoric age
So great was this convulsion OF mother
earth that beds of rock miles in breadth
and from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred feet in thickness were forcibly
torn apart and separated at varying dis
tances of quarter to half mile. In
the valley made by the rent in the solid
rock small rivers or creeks run their
tortuous course, some Of them of suffi-
cient size to afford water power to turn
the wheels of various mills situated at
eligible sites along the streams, the
banks of which are skirted by narrow
strips of fertile land level enough for
cultivation and very productive, while
on either side of the stream the riyen
rocks will be seen to rise as towering,
majestic cliffs. So uniformly similar in
outline are these opposing cliffs that,
should the hills be forced together, the
edges would interlock and fit together
Ike the two halves of an apple which
had been torn apart. Ascending to the
top of the cliff, the table lands which
spread out for many miles are heavily
timbered, and when cleared make pro.
ductive farms, the houses of prosperous
farmers.
An interesting feature of these roman.
tic cliffs will be found in the fact that
when the rock beds of which they were
formed were torn asunder and separated ,
the bottom portion was much softer than
that nearer the surface, and, when
exposed to the atmosphere, crumbled
and fell out in piles below, leaving the
surface or top Of the rock overhanging
and forming great rooms, some OF them
half mile in length, protected by the
overhanging rocks, and perfectly dry 81
all seasons and sufficient in size to amply
accommodate large armies with complete
shelter from storm and rain. They
became resorts for stock in winter. So
partial are the various kinds Of animals
to these comfortable retreats that some
of them, particularly hogs, will remain
under this shelter during long continued
cold weather with snow, and, if not TED
or driven out, will remain there and
starve. These commodious rooms under
the overhanging cliffs made comfortable
homes for the Indians who Inhabited
this country before its discovery by the
whites as eyinced by the discovery OF
large numbers of their flint arrowheads
and other implements of savage life
Another notable evidence of their occu'
pancy of these natural retreats from in
clement weather is that after the softer
portions of the rock nearer the ground
had fallen out and crumbled to dust or
sand, large portions of rock, ten or
fifteen feet in length and several feet in
thickness, would fall out from position
high up toward the surface, and, being
of 8 much harder substance, would
remain lying where they fell, and on the
ton of these the natives constructed or
sank mortars to depth of twelve or
sixteen inches and about six inches at
the top, gradually lessening toward the
bottom. They manifested much skill in
making these rock mortars exceedingly
uniform and smooth in all their parts
What use they made of them is purely
matter of conjecture. Some thought
they pounded their corn to hominy,
others that they pulverized their mate
rial for making powder in them. BE
this as it may, the mortars remain there
in the rocks as inverted monuments to
the skill of the red man. Many features
of interest will reward the visitor to these
scenes of once violent convulsion in
this part of the earth. The antiquity OF
| this great upheayal is shown by large
forest trees growing on the mounds made
by the crumbling and falling out of rocks,
| which no doubt at first presented clean
break OF perpendicular wall. In some
places saltpeter is found exuding in its
| natural state from the rock one hundred
feet from its top.
The most notable features of interest
are the springs which flow from beneath
these projecting cliffs. Among them are
the tar and white sulphur springs, stu
ated seven miles from the Ohio River,
near Cloverport, Ky.
These springs flow from the base OF a
cliff which is one hundred and fifty feet
high, and its top projects two hundred
| feet over the source of the spring, which
| is situated at the extreme back part of q
| commodious room made by the overhang.
ing rock, This room is always dry, cool
and shady. The water is beautifully
clear and cold, and the sides and bottom
of the channel along which it flows are
lined with a velvety coating of soft,
snowy white sulphur, which adds to the
crystal clearness of the water; but the
most remarkable feature of these springs
is stream of liquid tar, the size of a
small straw, continually running on the
surface of the stream Of water and flow.
ing off into the reservoir provided for its
reception. There may be break in this
stream of tar at times, but it is only
momentary, when it is succeeded by an,
other stream, and flows on and on as il
| it would flow forever. The supply would
seem to be inexhaustible. For thousands
ofyears this stream has continued to flow,
night and day without interruption, as
shown by banks of pitch ten feet in
thickness and hundred feet in width
made by this small stream flowing of
and evaporating the fluid portion, leaving
a hard, dry, pitchy residue Of the magni,
tude above mentioned.-J. ". CfonY'ton
in The Current.
! yn