Monday, February 27, 2012

Cedar Lane, Needle's Eye, Olive Branch

All these names describe some one of a kind features in Eastern Crittenden County.  Once called Great Wonders of Crittenden County few people know of these sites today.  Many years ago before the modern highways, the old dirt roads wondered through a whole different area than do the highways of today.  Sights were seen driving along these old roads that are now hidden from sight.  Such are these in this story.

These sights were some that could be seen from the old dirt road one would have to take from Tribune (about 5 miles east of Marion on S. R. 120),  to meander across the fields and woods to reach the road that would take you on in to Providence, Ky. in Webster County.  

Cedar Lane was a stretch of the road one would pass through.  It is told that the Cedar trees were planted by Thomas Smith.  He had a farm near by and his farm was known as Cedar Lane Farm.  He planted these Cedar trees along part of the road near his farm.   When he died he was buried in the Olive Branch Cemetery.  He doesn't have a tombstone, but the Cedar Lane, that he planted, stands as an evergreen monument to his memory.


 
Traveling on through Cedar Lane, and across Piney Creek by Deanwood and just short ways you will come to a curious and rare rock formation know to the local people as Needle's Eye, for going between the two rocks reminded travelers of trying to thread a needle through the small eye.  

What a beautiful area of Crittenden County these sights are located in.  In the springtime wildflowers grow among the rocks and beside the Piney Creek that flows just below the road.

The Olive Branch runs by where the Olive Branch Cemetery is and nearby was the Olive Branch School.  The branch is dry is this early spring photo, but when the rains come it fills up and flows merrily along it's path to empty into it's larger branch on the Cave Spring Road.

No comments: