DROOP MOUNTAIN ARTIFACTS, GHOSTS & FOSSILS + A TURTLE PARTY | Park Superintendent | Mike Smith

Mike Smith is the former superintendent of Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, as well as an artifact & fossil enthusiast and traditional bow hunter, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. We begin with his time at Droop Mountain, metal detecting under old oak trees and recounting the regional Civil War history. He tells of park visitors' many ghost experiences and significant archeological finds, such as three boys stumbling upon a Confederate rifle in the steep woods. We turn the pages of time back to arrowheads of the Shawnee and earlier native peoples; then even further back to 300-million-year-old fossils. Half way we switch to Mike's life, starting with his stories of an annual snapping turtle party, followed by his earliest boyhood memories of being a primitive hunter armed with only rocks.  We close on hellbender tongues, making buckskins and a proud father-son moment.

Buy the book Mike helped research, Last Sleep: The Battle of Droop Mountain

 Reading from Confederate Ghosts by Susan Crites

Music by:

"John Brown's Body"
Performed by Pete Seeger

"Mother Kissed Me in my Dream"
Unknown Artist

"In the Pines"
Performed by Dock Walsh

Support Our Numinous Nature on Patreon.

Follow Our Numinous Nature & my naturalist illustrations on Instagram

Check out my shop of shirts, prints, and books featuring my art

Contact: herbaceoushuman@gmail.com