Ashville 07

Before reaching the hanging chair, which turned out to also be the last chair of the hill, it seemed, I was distracted by interesting features to my east, namely a kind of shallow gorge or canyon leading down the mountain. In exploring it, I found what appears to be an old pocketbook. Nothing inside, however.

And then this suspiciously bare, mica studded hillock next to it. That’s some kind of animal doodie in the middle.

Nearby rock, white variety this time.

I decided to circle back to the northern part of of the hilltop to reexamine the first chair. This time I noticed more the rocks behind it.

Moving down the top again: sawed off tree sapling near what we’ll call 3rd Chair, or the “Dead Center Chair”.

Wow — that’s a piece of old river cane way up here, and probably from the cane grove with the owl man sculpture in its midst. That’s about a third of a mile from Dead Center Hill, and on the other side of the river as well. Took some effort, then, to get that piece of cane to the top. When I saw it, I immediately knew it had deep meaning.

Then nearby… what’s pretty obviously a headstone. Yes, Dead Center Hill is actually a repository for at least one dead soul. And there may be more graves, but with the headstones removed — there’s a lot of rocks on the top. This is a *big find*.

And then there’s that blasted chair hanging in the tree just behind the grave, as it turns out.

A shot combining headstone (front/lighted) and chair (background/dark). Not a good picture, but, again, one I want to recreate in the future. The chair and tombstone seem intimately related. What – does – this – mean?? Who put the 4 chairs there? Who is buried in the grave? Why is the hill so flat on the top and steep on the sides? Is it *artifical*? Is it an unknown Indian mound, by chance? There’s a possibility.

The meadow surrounding the hill seems so serene and calm, like an ocean.