Indiana's Ancient Arches 

My pleasure, Larry!

Definitely be careful!

As a kid, I grew up just south of the Marion county line. I always marveled at the rock walls when we visited my grandparents in Lawrence county. We didn’t have anything like that!

I’ve been to Missouri three times and have loved it! Incredible geology, caves and history!

My pleasure, Ryan!

I have a few online friends that are trying to hit every arch in the Daniel Boone National Forest! I have no doubt they’ll make it, as they are out every week of the year.

I have lots of friends that can’t go to these remote places. It’s an honor to show them what I can reach. 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger 😆 👍 my son also is always up for a challenge when hiking.

Awesome area for sure

A friend of mine thinks he found a petroglyph, just down from the arch, closer to Midnight Cave. That would be exciting!

Thank-you, Mike!

My pleasure!

Thank-you, Dwayne!

Thank-you, Scot!

That it is!

I think I’ve heard of it, but have definitely not been

Hoping to get to Perry County this season. Good hiking and rocky places

Shoot me a line sometime: Returpen@yahoo.com

@@AdventureswithRoger absolutely! Will do.

Always a pleasure, Linda! Hitting the tough places while I can.

Very!

It was one of those, “I can’t believe how great this filming day is ending.” 🙂

I did it solo, and made a few questionable choices that could’ve cost me. I’m nearly certain there’s an easier way than what I took. But, it’s one of my greatest hiking memories. 🙂

I keep saying I’ll make a trip up there and see the Glenn Black building.

It was on my bucket list for a long time, wasn’t sure it was going to happen!

It truly is. Out of all my travels, it’s my favorite place on earth.

“It’s a dandy if you don’t die.”

@@AdventureswithRoger it’s been on my list for years. I just don’t know the right people.

I’ve heard of some others on private property, but no one has produced a picture. There’s a quasi arch near Arrowhead, and another at Rich Cave Hollow, but they are more indentions than arches.

@AdventureswithRoger I just went to Rich Cave Hollow, but it was 5° and I only had about an hour to spend there. I need to get beck soon! Hidden arch above the karst spring was hard to get back to the powerline cut from! There's another arch in the ravines east of hemlock cliffs where the powerline cut goes through, it's not very big.

Be careful about the landowners across the creek. They’ve both shot in the air, and surrounded a guy I know, to intimidate.

@AdventureswithRoger I did hear gunshots hiking in east hemlock hollow, around the 20th of December. I live in Evansville, you'll have that.

Science is catching-up with religion, in some areas, now embracing a massive, world-wide deluge. Time scale is still in debate, with some religious scholars offering the Genesis 1:1-2 “gap theory”, to explain a large section of unaccounted earth history. Others offer the “a thousand years is like a day, and a day is like a thousand years unto the Lord” Biblical statement.

I’ve heard multiple stories. One was that it’s owned by the Nature Conservancy. Another is that despite that, the trail to it is on private property. And lastly, that’s it’s all owned by a very sketchy guy. As the story goes, a hiker stopped by his place to ask for permission, and the guy said, “You go ahead, I hope you don’t die.” This is all pretty ominous, as a family that lived nearby, all disappeared without a trace. What I do know is that the last bit down is treacherous, and I couldn’t find a better way, other than scaling rock. I did this solo, with the realization that if I fell, no one would find me for a long time. I was very glad to make it back up.

@@AdventureswithRoger That should have been enough to discourage me enough to eliminate it from the list of options entirely, with so many practical and less potentially hazardous to choose from, with the treacherous footpath threatening life an limb, yet not even the most daunting obstacle, the ominous statement from the sketchy fellow should be enough, and the missing 411 element should definitely dissuade any further talk of exploration,but rather I merely ruled out my grandsons inclusion. But the view you had atop the rock looking out of the opening, beckons me, something about it looks oddly familiar, but I know I've never been there.not sure (I) would attempt it solo, and definitely would not step foot into the forest without a little security in my pocket. But the danger aspect of the endeavor seems to have aroused my inner (Indiana Jones) so to speak,who has always been my personal hero, I don't think I still have my whip, but khakis,boots and fedora yes,due to my delusional inner Professor,lol. If I do in fact decide to embark on such a perilous expedition, I'll be sure to drop you a line,that way if I'm flattened by a boulder or captured by Nazis,and you decide to do a follow up video on the subject of caves, being (the stuff of footnotes) doesn't sound too bad. Thank you for taking the time to elaborate on your unsettling yet serenely rewarding adventure.Be careful out there on the backroads and less traveled trails,and if you ever feel compelled to risk everything in the name of journalism, but feel having a native sidekick along might be prudent,I think I have a turban around here somewhere,lol, have a great weekend Sir.

I’ve met some really decent people in my journeys. Some hike to dangerous, yet rewarding places, every week of the year, and have given me a wealth of information. Because of them, I have a few more places, similar to this one, that I’d love to see. Yet, one of these places has been known for outright intimidation by locals. If I remember the story correctly, my one friend was surrounded by 4 men, and he said something like, “I can call the sheriff, or you can fight me. What’s it gonna be?” They ended up walking away. Earlier, they’d sent bullets above his head as he was hiking. It’s not even their land!

The thing about some rural areas, in practically every region I've visited anyway, there are those that have an interest in keeping potential rivals to their claim of revenue of some nature, be it a crop or possibly a manufacturing operation, or even a holding ground for some resource they covet,especially the sketchy variety. In a lot of the reclaimed areas that I once spent a great deal of time, some of which was so remote and inaccessible that you wouldn't find a trace of human activity, and as I'm sure your aware there are few places you wont find somebody's trash if you look for it, a broken bottle or cigarette butt,but in the seventies and eighties anyway, you could pull off the side of the road and take off walking and rarely see postings prohibiting your presence. Now you see signs more often than not,there used to be a lot of areas you could mushroom hunt or fish, or just explore like I used to do alot, pick a direction and walk for hours,I never expected to find anything of great importance, but I did find stripper pits that looked like natural lakes, practically pristine, me and a buddy took a John boat to a small island in the middle of one of those pits,it was a piece of land they dug out all the way around, but didn't cut into that area for some reason, and it had,what I called oldgrowth, not the usual pine and mulberry that was everywhere. It was much denser vegetation,with oak and other native trees on it, it was kind of spooky, we didn't go very deep into it. But now you can't even get to it, but I've wondered why it wasn't dug up? And that was a spot that was mined probably in the thirties, based on the abandoned heavy equipment I found back in that far. But it's all completely different now, all privately owned, I've heard of guns drawn over a handful of morels,I wouldn't venture into any wooded areas now without a firearm myself. And there used to be tales of supposed, what was commonly referred to as (devil worshippers)? One area in particular called Blackfoot, here in Pike county that was always said to be a gathering place, used to be a church and graveyard we used to go after dark, to try and get scared for the most part.I was there a couple years ago, walking around in the graveyard, just to see what I could conjur up so to speak, there is a story about a witch and a native burial ground, there is a monument that is related to the tale on site. It would be a good subject for a Halloween episode, just take your buddy along if you go. We planned on returning with a spirit box but never did. Up in the Shoals area there are whispers of such groups as well,in the early eighties some buddies and I were up there, looking for vines to swing from if you can imagine? lol. But we walked into like a mom and pops store, and people were talking, then it went pin drop silent, even the woman at the register never said a word,it just made all of us feel like we were being watched,,we all had that hair on the back of your neck feeling, still gives me the Willey's,later an old lady, one of my buddies grandmas, tell us to be careful because of the DWs. I'm sure you are aware of stuff like that,all I'm saying is be mindful,be careful, and if your going off the beaten path, take a buddy, and I hope you are including a little security in your pack, there are worse things than meth labs out there, I'm sure you are a capable guy,just be careful,from the comments I'd say,you have a number of people that would obviously miss (A.W.R) myself included😺

The commune in Martin County exists. While I’ve seen pictures, I can’t say what they believe or practice, but it’s real. There are fringe religious groups all over southern Indiana, and with it: folklore that cannot be confirmed. The funniest story was when my cousin and some friends, heard of a “witchcraft place” and went there on a dare. People were wearing these dark cloaks with hoods and everyone in the car panicked. My cousin hit the gas, spinning the tires and subsequently got the car stuck in a ditch! People in the dark cloaks approached the car,….and helped rock the car out of the ditch. And my cousin wasted no time blowing out of there. 😂

Lots of theories floating around. The most prominent is a rapid draining of water, to a subterranean passage, along with later glacial deposits.

@@AdventureswithRoger Yes, but my main hangup is why the rock formations and then the lack of 10 ft from the very spots of formations.

Probably not: not my cup of tea.

Been over to Brewersville, doing a segment about the giant skeleton, have never heard of an arch. Do you have a website showing a picture?

It’s got a rocky channel, that descends into the ravine, that’s a little narrow and the steps are very slippery, with the least bit of water. At the bottom, it’s an easy hike with some side areas that are dicey, but you don’t have to take them. The rock faces up to the caves are hazardous. At the far end of the canyon is a large rock shelter that’s a little hazardous to climb. Then, an ascent to the parking lot, that might take the wind out of you.

Have passed it a few times, have heard of others going,

One of my acquaintances has seen a few carved (or looks carved) turtle, serpent and even chief heads in Crawford County.

No worries. If someone can’t take a moment to think about the effort it took to travel, explore a location, film numerous angles, write a script and edit a video, let alone the costs of travel and equipment, before they make a nasty comment, I don’t take a moment to permanently shadow ban them.

@@AdventureswithRoger Yes Roger you are correct. I have learned so much from your videos. I am glad you do this for us all.

@@AdventureswithRoger 👍

Lots of great, plausible theories, but I wasn’t there at the time. 🙂 I believe there was once a supercontinent: religion and science seem to agree on that one. Timescale is still in debate.

I bet you were there you just don't want to admit you age LOL@@AdventureswithRoger